{"id":3870,"date":"2024-04-11T09:04:41","date_gmt":"2024-04-11T09:04:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=3870"},"modified":"2024-04-11T09:30:09","modified_gmt":"2024-04-11T09:30:09","slug":"how-to-be-less-self-critical-when-perfectionism-is-a-trap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=3870","title":{"rendered":"How to Be Less Self-Critical When Perfectionism Is a Trap"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Young people are struggling with social comparison and self-criticism, but experts say there are ways to quiet those voices.<\/p>\n

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Yuxin Sun, a psychologist in Seattle, sees a lot of clients at her group practice who insist they aren\u2019t perfectionists. \u201c\u2018Oh, I\u2019m not perfect. I\u2019m far from perfect,\u2019\u201d they tell her.<\/p>\n

But perfectionism isn\u2019t about being the best at any given pursuit, Dr. Sun said, \u201cit\u2019s the feeling of never arriving to that place, never feeling good enough, never feeling adequate.\u201d And that can make for a harsh internal voice that belittles and chastises us.<\/p>\n

Perfectionism is so pervasive that there\u2019s a test to measure it: the Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale. When researchers looked at how college students have responded to the scale\u2019s questions over time, they found that rates of perfectionism surged in recent decades, skyrocketing between 2006 and 2022.<\/p>\n

Thomas Curran, an associate professor of psychology at the London School of Economics and Political Science who led the analysis, said the type of perfectionism with the steepest rise \u2014 socially prescribed perfectionism \u2014 was rooted in the belief that others<\/em> expect you to be perfect. Today\u2019s young person is more likely to score much higher on this measure than someone who took the test decades ago. There could be a number of causes for the uptick: increasing parental expectations, school pressures, the ubiquity of social media influencers and advertising.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The feeling of not being good enough or that \u201cmy current life circumstances are inadequate or not sufficient\u201d has created an \u201cunrelenting treadmill,\u201d Dr. Curran said, where there is \u201cno joy in success and lots of self-criticism.\u201d<\/p>\n

Regardless of whether you consider yourself a perfectionist, experts say there are a number of small things you can try to keep your inner critic in check.<\/p>\n

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Young people are struggling with social comparison and self-criticism, but experts say there are ways to quiet those voices.Yuxin Sun, a psychologist in Seattle, sees a lot of clients at her group practice who insist they aren\u2019t perfectionists. \u201c\u2018Oh, I\u2019m not perfect. I\u2019m far from perfect,\u2019\u201d they tell her.But perfectionism isn\u2019t about being the best at any given pursuit, Dr. Sun said, \u201cit\u2019s the feeling of never arriving to that place, never feeling good enough, never feeling adequate.\u201d And that can make for a harsh internal voice that belittles and chastises us.Perfectionism is so pervasive that there\u2019s a test to measure it: the Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale. When researchers looked at how college students have responded to the scale\u2019s questions over time, they found that rates of perfectionism surged in recent decades, skyrocketing between 2006 and 2022.Thomas Curran, an associate professor of psychology at the London School of Economics and Political Science who led the analysis, said the type of perfectionism with the steepest rise \u2014 socially prescribed perfectionism \u2014 was rooted in the belief that others expect you to be perfect. Today\u2019s young person is more likely to score much higher on this measure than someone who took the test decades ago. There could be a number of causes for the uptick: increasing parental expectations, school pressures, the ubiquity of social media influencers and advertising.The feeling of not being good enough or that \u201cmy current life circumstances are inadequate or not sufficient\u201d has created an \u201cunrelenting treadmill,\u201d Dr. Curran said, where there is \u201cno joy in success and lots of self-criticism.\u201dRegardless of whether you consider yourself a perfectionist, experts say there are a number of small things you can try to keep your inner critic in check.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3872,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3870","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3870"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3870\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3873,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3870\/revisions\/3873"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}