Perfectionism

[Guest guest]

Perfectionism is at the heart of so much of OCD I

think.

The hoarding form is (as I understand it) the fear of

not making the perfect decision about whether to toss

or not.

Getting all A's might be all about being perfect.

Scrupulosity is about being perfect.

Fear of contamination (which is usually about causing

others to get sick) is about being perfect.

Having bad thoughts makes the OC think there is

something wrong with them (not perfect).

Re-tracing letters (perfect)

________

________

For therapy one week, my son's therapist told him to

purposely hand school projects in in as unperfect a

state as he possibly could. It was hard for me not to

get anxious at this (which made me realize maybe I had

a little problem)-- so I backed off and encouraged him

to not be perfect and I think it helped alot. The

therapist actually told ds to think about how hard

most of his friends work on their homework and only

work that hard. I think that really made an

impression on him. He's still an A student but I

don't think it's about perfectionism (not that that

won't crop up agin).

His therapist also told him to wash dishes and

purposely not get them totally clean before putting in

drainer. That worked too.

Now I try to remind him once in a while that it's not

important to be perfect. And he reminds me when I'm

making him feel like he's not.

--- jtlt@... wrote:

>

> In a message dated 9/4/2006 4:44:47 P.M. Eastern

> Standard Time,

> sdonovan1@... writes:

>

> I know that it really seems as though OCD gets into

> the brains of gifted

> children but I do believe that it can affect

> anyone.

>

>

> I don't know if I've caught all the posts on this

> subject, but consider this

> - much like the TV show last night explained how

> that poor girl had a

> perfect 4.0 grade average & always turned in perfect

> school work, etc.... that was

> actually part of her OCD. Perhaps (some) kids are

> only considered " gifted "

> BECAUSE of their OCD???

>

> This is very much like our daughter - for years she

> received nothing but

> straight A's in school - she was on the Junior

> National Honor Society, etc...

> everything had to be 'perfect'. This wasn't that

> she was such a great

> worker.... it was her OCD that wouldn't allow her to

> receive any grade less than an

> 'A'.

> LT

>

>

> [Non-text portions of this message have been

> removed]

>

>