Ask HN: How did you overcome perfectionism?

Re:Ask HN: How did you overcome perfectionism? by senguidev on Monday March 07, 2022 @02:20PM (#30592156)

Psychotherapy (esp. CBT - cognitive behavioral therapy - and ACT - acceptance commitment therapy) has been very helpful to me to understand how this works. The fun part has been observing how a professional operates and the effects it can have on someone. So I jumped right into psychology studies. It’s fascinating. It helped me understand my behavior further. There are good introductory books such as « Happiness Trap » (this one is about ACT)

Then lots of reading and experimenting. Related thread (and great article from a fellow perfectionist) « Unlearning Perfectionism » https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30223559

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Re:Ask HN: How did you overcome perfectionism? by mateo1 on Monday March 07, 2022 @02:36PM (#30592331)

"How did you deal with perfectionism?" "Well, I started therapy but that wasn't good enough so I became a psychologist and I'm looking for the ultimate solution for it"

Jokes aside, a better understanding of the need for time- and budget-limited solutions, as well as the realization of the maladaptive social origins of this issue have helped me control my perfectionism to an adequate degree.

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Re:Ask HN: How did you overcome perfectionism? by senguidev on Tuesday March 08, 2022 @09:41AM (#30600378)

Haha yeah, the joke’s not completely out of touch.

Fortunately it lead to a « good enough » understanding and mitigation state in my case. Quite similar to yours it seems!

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