Can excessive pursuit of perfection cause emotional illness?
Johnson (pseudonym) worked in a bank after graduation. Because of his hard work, he was promoted to supervisor earlier. Although he was happy, he found that his new position had to take care of more and more areas and he was under increasing pressure. He expects perfection in everything. Even if he works overtime until late at night every day, the pile of documents is still increasing. Johnson originally had high morale, but found that he was gradually tired of work. No matter how comforted by the people around him, his low mood still could not get better. I couldn’t sleep at night and felt even more powerless.
After his girlfriend persuaded him, he finally made up his mind to seek treatment from a psychiatrist. The result was that he was suffering from depression. “Doctor, I just want to do a good job. Is it wrong to pursue perfection?” a frustrated Johnson asked.
From a doctor’s point of view, the pursuit of perfection is a character expression, and there is no right or wrong. However, if you force yourself to be “zero-flawed” in everything, continued mental pressure will cause an imbalance in the level of neurotransmitters in the brain. , which interferes with the brain’s ability to regulate emotions, leading to symptoms of depression.
Depression can be divided into severe depression, mild depression, and manic depression based on the symptoms and severity of the patient. Patients, like Johnson, may suffer from long-term low mood, loss of interest in daily hobbies, frequent insomnia, easy fatigue, and loss of motivation. .
Doctors can arrange different treatment modes based on the patient’s cause and severity, including psychological treatment (such as cognitive behavioral therapy) and drug treatment. Severe cases may require Electro-Convulsive Therapy or Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation. Magnetic brain stimulation therapy aims to stimulate the brain. Because it only uses high-frequency magnetism, it does not require anesthesia, does not damage brain nerves, and has no side effects of amnesia. Compared with cerebral concussion (8 to 12 times), the number of treatments is more (20 to 40 times), and the effectiveness is slightly lower (about 70%). However, after weighing the pros and cons, the advantages still outweigh the disadvantages, especially It only takes one week for brain magnetic stimulation to take effect, which is much faster than the three weeks it takes for drugs to take effect.
Of course, some cases still need to be combined with drugs to obtain the desired effect. Patients with metal in the brain, pacemakers, or a history of encephalitis must also use it with caution.
The author is a psychiatrist
2024-03-07 20:30:42
#excessive #pursuit #perfection #emotional #illness #am730
