Perfectionism and Depression: Vulnerabilities Nurses Need to Understand

Striving for excellence is an admirable goal. Adaptive or healthy perfectionism can drive ambition and lead to extraordinary accomplishments. High-achieving people often show signs of perfectionism. However, maladaptive, unhealthy, or neurotic perfectionism, where anything less than perfect is unacc...

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Main Author: Sherri Melrose
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2011-01-01
Series:Nursing Research and Practice
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2011/858497
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author Sherri Melrose
author_facet Sherri Melrose
author_sort Sherri Melrose
collection DOAJ
description Striving for excellence is an admirable goal. Adaptive or healthy perfectionism can drive ambition and lead to extraordinary accomplishments. High-achieving people often show signs of perfectionism. However, maladaptive, unhealthy, or neurotic perfectionism, where anything less than perfect is unacceptable, can leave individuals vulnerable to depression. In both personal and professional relationships, nurses need to understand how accepting only perfection in self and others is likely to lead to emotional distress. This paper reviews perfectionism as a personality style, comments on perfectionism and high achievement, discusses vulnerabilities to depression, identifies how to recognize perfectionists, and presents balancing strategies perfectionists can implement to lessen their vulnerability to depression.
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spelling doaj-art-312b2fbcfb0c448b8e3ed6819efc5ee82025-08-20T02:38:55ZengWileyNursing Research and Practice2090-14292090-14372011-01-01201110.1155/2011/858497858497Perfectionism and Depression: Vulnerabilities Nurses Need to UnderstandSherri Melrose0Centre for Nursing and Health Studies, Faculty of Health Disciplines, Athabasca University, Athabasca, AB, T9S 3A3, CanadaStriving for excellence is an admirable goal. Adaptive or healthy perfectionism can drive ambition and lead to extraordinary accomplishments. High-achieving people often show signs of perfectionism. However, maladaptive, unhealthy, or neurotic perfectionism, where anything less than perfect is unacceptable, can leave individuals vulnerable to depression. In both personal and professional relationships, nurses need to understand how accepting only perfection in self and others is likely to lead to emotional distress. This paper reviews perfectionism as a personality style, comments on perfectionism and high achievement, discusses vulnerabilities to depression, identifies how to recognize perfectionists, and presents balancing strategies perfectionists can implement to lessen their vulnerability to depression.http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2011/858497
spellingShingle Sherri Melrose
Perfectionism and Depression: Vulnerabilities Nurses Need to Understand
Nursing Research and Practice
title Perfectionism and Depression: Vulnerabilities Nurses Need to Understand
title_full Perfectionism and Depression: Vulnerabilities Nurses Need to Understand
title_fullStr Perfectionism and Depression: Vulnerabilities Nurses Need to Understand
title_full_unstemmed Perfectionism and Depression: Vulnerabilities Nurses Need to Understand
title_short Perfectionism and Depression: Vulnerabilities Nurses Need to Understand
title_sort perfectionism and depression vulnerabilities nurses need to understand
url http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2011/858497
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