A person struggling with problematic perfectionism may not be able to perform a task unless they know they can do it perfectly; they may view the end product as the most important part of any undertaking, and as a result, spend lots of time scrutinizing and reviewing all the various details, perhaps to the point of never completing the task as it is never “right.”
Let’s consider Summi’s situation. Summi “puts a lot of pressure on (herself) to get things right” this includes multiple areas of her life, her school work, her friendships, as well as taking care of the things she owns. Summi spends hours on her homework, going over it again and again to make sure that she got everything right. When giving advice to her friend, she replays it in her mind to make sure she gave the best advice possible, and will often revisit the topic with the friend to revise her advice, even after the situation is resolved. When shopping for a laptop, Summi asks herself “how efficient is it” , “will I be able to keep it for years” and “it needs to be a good investment of my money”. It feels very important to her that she make the “best choice” and often making choices makes her feel anxious and she spends hours researching laptop options.
