8 Signs You're a Perfectionist (and Why It's Toxic to Your Mental Health)

It's never good enough, so you get sucked so far into the details that you become frustrated.

Even when your goal is complete and results in success, you believe you could and should have done it better.

Even if you have a clear goal of what perfection means, obsessively pursuing it is a sign of insecurity.

And insecurity, when not addressed directly, doesn’t go away because a concrete objective has been achieved, it manifests itself into self-criticism or a new overvalued goal.

Instead of forgiving and viewing mistakes as a learning opportunity, you criticize and put pressure on yourself for not predicting a less than perfect outcome. You feel inadequate, and these feelings preoccupy your mind, often to the point of losing productivity.

Perfectionists are afraid of judgment. They often want to be seen as being effortlessly perfect.

When presented with an opportunity that requires new skills or moving outside of your comfort zone, you're likely to turn it down. You're afraid to not be good enough to tackle a new learning curve and to be seen as a failure or a disappointment.

Personality and positive qualities like honesty, compassion, humor, etc. , aren't what perfectionists believe people will like about them.

It's not enough to be a wonderful person, you must be a perfectly wonderful person. You don't allow others to see your flaws and most likely you talk about your achievements, but never your failures.

Perfectionists cope well in a low-stress environment. Outside of that, anxiety often increases, which offers the illusion that nothing is going well, thereby decreasing life satisfaction.

You may get things done, but you are in a constant battle with the decisions and motivation to complete certain things. The "what ifs" and expectation of a negative consequence or result preoccupies you and the pressure can be overwhelming.