Many college students find that the pressure to do well in school can bleed over into their personal lives. When students experience depression or anxiety because of their inability to live up to high standards they have set for themselves, they often need to seek counseling.

Perfectionism in psychology is the belief that perfection can and should be attained. What counselors call maladaptive perfectionists go to the extreme of believing that anything less than perfect is unacceptable.

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“These are the folks that even if they get a high grade on a test it’s not good enough,” said Dr. Mark LaSota, a senior staff clinician at Student Counseling Services. “They may say ‘I got a 97 on a test but it wasn’t a 100, and if a 100 was possible I should have gotten a 100.’”

Auburn University’s Student Counseling Services offers help for students struggling with perfectionism, although the counselors working with students there rarely see students come in only complaining about perfectionism.

“It’s a theme,” said LaSota. “It’s very rare that people comes in and says ‘I’m a perfectionist, end of story’ and that’s what we work on, but I tend to think of it as a factor that we discover as we unravel.”

Generally, perfectionism isn’t regarded as a pathology, but rather a symptom of a larger problem. Often, perfectionists suffer from clinical depression because they struggle with finding a sense of accomplishment. Perfectionism is a common problem because people are rewarded for setting high standards for themselves and they are reinforced when they achieve their goals with praise, positive feedback or good grades.

Perfectionism has some positive qualities, like good study habits and good time management, but it becomes a problem when a person stops seeing opportunities to success and only sees them as opportunities to fail.

“I don’t want to take any of the positive aspects of perfectionism away,” said LaSota. “I’m mostly concerned about correcting the maladaptive aspects of it.”

For students who come in to counseling with LaSota, he often tries to demonstrate to them that failure isn’t the worst thing in the world. One common exercise he has his patients try is purposely falling with an armload of books.

“It’s just to see objectively what is it like when I make a mistake,” said LaSota. “Is it really so awful or can I live with the awkwardness and even laugh at myself a little.”

Some common signs of perfectionist exhibit:

• Having an all or nothing thinking
• Being critical of themselves
• Feeling of being pushed toward goals by fear of not reaching them
• Setting unrealistic standards
• Focusing on results
• Becoming depressed by unmet goals
• Having a fear of failure
• Procrastinating
• Being defensive
• Having low self esteem

If you feel you suffer from perfectionism or need to talk to a counselor about another problem, you can schedule an appointment by calling (334) 844-5123 or stopping by the counseling center, located on the second floor of the Medical Clinic on Lem Morrison Drive. For more information about services offered by Auburn’s Student Counseling Services, visit their website at www.auburn.edu/scs/.