Perfectionism, Emotion Regulation, and the Cortisol Stress Response

[Such_Saturation]

http://tinyurl.com/mgynd3x

The results suggest that maladaptive perfectionism is associated
with a lower cortisol response to a stressful task, consistent with
our hypothesis regarding chronic stress among individuals who
tend to be critical of their performance (Flett & Hewitt, 2002). This
is fitting given the fact that the maladaptive perfectionists in this
study were undergraduate students who are presented with performance
challenges on a daily basis (e.g., Weekes et al., 2006), and
self-criticism likely takes its toll on their physiological reactivity to
a stressor after multiple stressful events. Previous research has
suggested that chronic stress leads to blunted cortisol stress responses
because overactivation of the HPA axis eventually results
in a hypoactive HPA axis (Kudielka & Wüst, 2010).

 

[InterrogaOmnia]

I have some mild perfectionist qualities and am a bit emotionally dull.

Any time I feel stressed I start focusing on myself and think about my asymmetrical features like my crossbite, left eye astigmatism, and an issue with my right shoulder blade. I feel way less obsessed about it nowadays though. Used to have chronic anxiety and a very low self esteem.

How fix?

 

[oxidation_is_normal]

The causality may be the other way around. A cortisol cycle in the body may lead to behaviors we would label "self-criticism." These stress cycles are burned into most people from childhood and it takes lots of active work to break them.

 

[Such_Saturation]

I have some mild perfectionist qualities and am a bit emotionally dull.

Any time I feel stressed I start focusing on myself and think about my asymmetrical features like my crossbite, left eye astigmatism, and an issue with my right shoulder blade. I feel way less obsessed about it nowadays though. Used to have chronic anxiety and a very low self esteem.

How fix?

Who knows, meditation, theanine, lsd...

 

[oxidation_is_normal]

I have some mild perfectionist qualities and am a bit emotionally dull.

Any time I feel stressed I start focusing on myself and think about my asymmetrical features like my crossbite, left eye astigmatism, and an issue with my right shoulder blade. I feel way less obsessed about it nowadays though. Used to have chronic anxiety and a very low self esteem.

How fix?

If you can convince yourself you're doing everything you can, then you should be able to let go. If you feel empowered to change these things, then work on them to the best of your abilities and then let go... If you don't, then work on letting go here and now. Taking a meditation class (a legit one where you don't get to move and adjust the posture) will let you take control of your body in a new way - so you can leave it alone and rest your mind separately.

 

[InterrogaOmnia]

I have some mild perfectionist qualities and am a bit emotionally dull.

Any time I feel stressed I start focusing on myself and think about my asymmetrical features like my crossbite, left eye astigmatism, and an issue with my right shoulder blade. I feel way less obsessed about it nowadays though. Used to have chronic anxiety and a very low self esteem.

How fix?

Who knows, meditation, theanine, lsd...

I'm pretty hesitant to try psychedelics again. I used to smoke a lot of pot and did shrooms several times. I stopped doing drugs shortly after trying fake lsd a few times, which left me pretty screwed up. Not long after that, I went on my year long ultra low carb diet making things worse.

I'm actually doing pretty good compared to a couple years ago, but thought I'd post for the hell of it. So i guess i must be doing something right.

 

[Such_Saturation]

I'm pretty hesitant to try psychedelics again. I used to smoke a lot of pot and did shrooms several times. I stopped doing drugs shortly after trying fake lsd a few times, which left me pretty screwed up. Not long after that, I went on my year long ultra low carb diet making things worse.

I'm actually doing pretty good compared to a couple years ago, but thought I'd post for the hell of it. So i guess i must be doing something right.

Well some people here think stuff like bromocriptine or lisuride is quite similar to lsd without the other effects, perhaps that is something to think about. But lsd really has that long lasting effect of months although I won't say the effect itself is too much in the direction of less perfectionism.

 

[Brian]

I have some mild perfectionist qualities and am a bit emotionally dull.

Any time I feel stressed I start focusing on myself and think about my asymmetrical features like my crossbite, left eye astigmatism, and an issue with my right shoulder blade. I feel way less obsessed about it nowadays though. Used to have chronic anxiety and a very low self esteem.

How fix?

One important way in my experience seems to be to strengthen and maybe increase the number of your secure attachments to people you can see often face to face. As far as primate psychology goes one thing that we all seem to have in common is that a perception of isolation, low-status, rejection, etc... create very high levels of stress. Maybe putting us into a chronic fight and flight state where our mind often focuses on calculating what is wrong with us that we aren't being approved of by the people we are familiar with, when in reality it's just that we aren't having enough meaningful positive social interactions. The mind can become convinced that if only we could change some aspect of our appearance or condition that we would then have a much higher social standing.

The obvious thing to do is to give your mind more assurance that you are bonded and important to at least a small group of people that you see regularly. What seems to be important is not superficial interactions of kindness or courtesy, but deeper experiences of exchange with others that require high levels of trust and vulnerability.

Of course getting serotonin, estrogen, and prolactin lower through Peaty or other techniques make it much easier to do this, but I really do think that more and deeper friendships can go a long way in signaling to our mind and whole physiology that we are safe and thriving in social networks that needs and wants us, probably in part through oxytocin release. When we make this a priority the mind then seems to redirect its cognitive and emotional calculations more towards the well-being of our friends rather than critiquing ourself in scrupulous ways in hopes of increasing our status with the ghosts of our imagination.

Some other things that I've noticed help decrease anxiety and increase self esteem are keeping body temperature high (through baths/clothing/sunlight if necessary) and even just a little daily strength training/challenging bodyweight movements throughout the day seem to keep my confidence higher and attention on achieving, playfulness, creativity, and socializing instead of perfectionism. It also amazes me how something as simple as 1-3 daily carrots in between meals can have an incredible impact on my capacity for these things as well.

 

[Such_Saturation]

(through baths/clothing/sunlight if necessary)

this makes all the difference for me

 

[Giraffe]

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[Such_Saturation]

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The original link seems not to be correct any longer.

Thanks Giraffe!