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Bangalore-based Rashmi Vasudeva's journalism has appeared in many Indian and international publications over the past decade. A features writer with over nine years of experience heading a health and fitness supplement in a mainstream Indian newspaper, her niche areas include health, wellness, fitness, food, nutrition and Indian classical Arts.
Her articles have appeared in various publications including Mint-Wall Street Journal, The Hindu, Deccan Herald (mainstream South Indian newspaper), Smart Life (Health magazine from the Malayala Manorama Group of publications), YourStory (India's media technology platform for entrepreneurs), Avantika (a noir arts and theatre magazine), ZDF (a German public broadcasting company) and others.
In 2006, she was awarded the British Print-Chevening scholarship to pursue a short-term course in new-age journalism at the University of Westminster, U.K. With a double Masters in Globalisation and Media Studies from Aarhus Universitet (Denmark), University of Amsterdam and Swansea University in Wales, U.K., she has also dabbled in academics, travel writing and socio-cultural studies. Mother to a frisky toddler, she hums 'wheels on the bus' while working and keeps a beady eye on the aforementioned toddler's antics.
Not So Perfect: Why Perfectionism Is More Toxic Than Healthy
Slackers of the world knew all along, but it seems now scientists are also agreeing with them that perfectionism is not such an ideal construct after all. Long associated with many positive traits such as success, eminence, achievement and fame, researchers are actually finding it to be self-defeating and dangerous — leading to a host of health problems.
What’s curious and worrying for the researchers is the rise in ‘toxic’ perfectionism. Unlike the general perception that this probably means we are getting to be more accomplished, it actually indicates that, as a society, we are getting “sicker, sadder and (are) undermining our own potential”.
Why, you may ask. Because perfectionism is built on what the author terms ‘excruciating irony’ — perfectionism might actually hold you back from being your best self. It is increasingly being linked to a host of health issues — depression, anxiety, eating disorders, PTSD, insomnia, chronic headaches, and suicide.
Viewing perfectionism as a possible mental disorder gets complicated because of a host of reasons. Primary among them is that, culturally, perfectionism is seen as a compliment to oneself; as something that is casually put across as a so-called negative (but positive) trait in job interviews. “Yeah, that's my worst trait (not), you know!”
Research shows that while a certain amount of healthy perfectionism might be good for us, instilling in us a sense of motivation and discipline, maladaptive perfectionism can make the individual highly ‘stress-sensitive’, experience more guilt and lead them to adopt avoidant tendencies.
The article is a great read, not just because it makes us think about our own personality traits a little more deeply than usual, but also because it has enough evidence to support its theory and more than one anecdote to keep up our interest. Like the fact that Claude Monet, who apparently believed his whole life was a failure, once tragically destroyed 15 paintings in a fit of perfectionist temper.
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