When Perfectionism Stems from ADHD: Challenging the Fallacy of “Not Good Enough”

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1According to the American Psychological Association (APA), perfectionism is the tendency to demand of others or of oneself an extremely high or even flawless level of performance – above and beyond what is required by the situation.1Though the link may seem unlikely at first glance, perfectionism is also strongly associated with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD or ADD).2 For some, perfectionism is a psychological overcompensation for past ADHD-related errors or for feelings of inferiority.

For others, it is a form of self-punishment or even procrastination. Perfectionism often stems from this: incorrectly estimating the demands of a task or situation, misunderstanding when to let some things go and the inability of accessing resources to help you cope with a perceived challenge.Decreasing perfectionism begins with cultivating self-awareness and adopting strategies to dissolve patterns of anxiety and negative self-talk.

People with ADHD may also benefit from improving the executive functions that help them combat procrastination and other self-defeating behaviors that feed into perfectionism.Perfectionism can manifest in various ways, including the following:[Get This Free Download: 9 Truths About ADHD and Intense Emotions]These manifestations may be associated with any of these three main types of perfectionism identified by researchers3:At its core, perfectionism is related to anxiety.