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Did you know that perfectionism has its roots in childhood emotional neglect? Children who were raised by neglectful parents tend to be very hard on themselves well into their adulthood.
When outside abuse by people who have unreasonable expectations gets under your skin, it becomes internalized. As a result, you pick on everything you do and nothing is ever good enough. This can result in procrastination, stalling your progress or never even beginning a project because you are afraid of being judged or failing.
Since neglect is different from direct mistreatment, as it is more of an absence than presence of something, it can be difficult to nail and trace as the source of your current problems. Unable to find specific examples, you take the blame, believing there is something fundamentally wrong with you at the core of your being. It’s time to face the truth and free yourself.
Roots of Perfectionism
Adapting to a home where one or both of your parents were neglectful takes effort. Neglectful parents want children who are easy and make no fuss or requests. Since you wanted to be good, you stopped asking questions because you didn’t want to anger them. You hid…
