Re: Balancing life and work for workaholic ADDer

[Wgreen]

And one more thing…. You say you’re the guy who needs to fix things. That implies you think they’re often broken. Maybe they are. But interestingly, “perfectionism” is, or can be, considered an obsessive disorder (something with which ADDers often have to contend). Take a look at this excerpt from the Perfectionism entry in Wikipedia (for what it’s worth):

“In the workplace, perfectionism is often marked by low productivity as individuals lose time and energy on small irrelevant details of larger projects or mundane daily activities. This can lead to depression, alienated colleagues, and a greater risk of workplace “accidents.” Adderholt-Elliot (1989) describes five characteristics of perfectionist students and teachers, which contribute to underachievement: procrastination, fear of failure, the all-or-nothing mindset, paralysed perfectionism, and workaholism. In intimate relationships, unrealistic expectations can cause significant dissatisfaction for both partners. Greenspon lists behaviors, thoughts, and feelings that typically characterize perfectionism.

Perfectionists can suffer anxiety and low self-esteem. Perfectionism is a risk factor for obsessive compulsive personality disorder, eating disorders, social anxiety, social phobia, body dysmorphic disorder, workaholism, self harm, and clinical depression as well as physical problems like chronic stress, and heart disease.”

This may not apply in your case—but I thought it was worth sharing.

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