How Your Perfectionism Is Making Your Social Anxiety Worst

Striving for Perfection: How Your High Standards Might Be Fueling Your Social Anxiety

I always had extremely high standards for myself; since social anxiety was holding me back from so much in my life, I felt I had to be perfect in every other aspect unrelated to socializing. If we were learning new software at work, I needed to master it before anyone else.

Even when I was having success in some areas of my life, I would only focus on my failures. I was socially anxious and would avoid talking to people for fear of being judged. I was so hard on myself. Even when other people complimented me on something I had accomplished, I would pay them no mind, thinking they were trying to be nice.

Procrastination was part of my everyday life; when I had to do a Toastmasters speech, I would wait until the last minute. Giving a speech made me feel anxious, so I was trying to do something else instead to take my mind off it, but I would think about it and not do anything else. Since I was procrastinating, my speeches were not as good as they could have been if I had started earlier, making me feel bad about myself.

What is perfectionism?