Perfectionism + lack of control = Depression

[Perfectly Scattered]

Hi everyone,

I am new here. This year has been beyond awful for my family. My 8yr old son developed severe OCD (likely linked to Autism- doing assessments now). Me being so driven believed I could 'fix' everything for him by immersing myself in all the info on OCD and taking him to his Psychologist- following all the rules to successfully beat OCD. I put everything I had into helping him only to feel like a complete failure when we had to resort to medication even though I am fully aware of the role serotonin takes in mental illness- I am not against medication- I was just upset that I did not achieve my goal unaided. I realise medication was necessary in my sons case- he had began to believe everyone and everything were poisonous, life in general was torture for him. Question to everyone... Does anyone else put such high and un-achievable expectations on yourself that when they are not reached you fall into a depression? I have noticed a pattern of this throughout my life, has anyone found a way to stop it happening? At the time I never feel like what I am expecting from myself was out of reach- it is only once my depression lifts that I truely realise how misguided I was.

[White_Rose]

Hello PS

Great news about your son. I am so very happy for you.

I, too, loved Hamlet's response. I love the idea of a perfect solution to every problem and get incredibly sad that this is rarely the case. we humans are a resilient race and it really is amazing how much we can adapt. The problem of course is that we only these things in hindsight.

I had not realised there was a diagnosed condition of Perfectionism. I thought it was just something we said about ourselves. So where did you get your information? I am really interested in this.

It's really great when someone "gets" you. My GP is like that. Amazing.

Mary