Perfectionism a Major Factor in Suicide

www.wallstreetotc.com
If in your story you have a character with a strong urge to be perfect, living in a story arc where he or she experiences pressure from those around them to be perfect in all ways and things, you need to ask, what effect will this have on them? 

 According to Professor Gordon Flett of York University in England, this character has a higher risk of suicidal thoughts and actions than others.  Worst yet, their drive for perfectionism causes them to project an image of perfection to the world around them, while their self-talk is filled with frustration and expressions of failure because they feel they are living a lie.  These are the people who surprise everyone around them with a suicidal act.  "I never saw that coming," is a common refrain.

 It's this realistic detail that creates believable characters and carries your reader or viewer along in your story.

 Here's the report:  

Perfectionism is a bigger risk factor in suicide than we may think, says York University Psychology Professor Gordon Flett, calling for closer attention to its potential destructiveness, adding that clinical guidelines should include perfectionism as a separate factor for suicide risk assessment and intervention.

"There is an urgent need for looking at perfectionism with a person-centered approach as an individual and societal risk factor, when formulating clinical guidelines for suicide risk assessment and intervention, as well as public health approaches to suicide prevention," says Flett.

Recommended reading
More than one million people worldwide, including over 40,000 North Americans commit suicide on an annual basis, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's 2012 estimation.

In a research article, Flett and his co-authors Professor Paul Hewitt of the University of British Columbia and Professor Marnin Heisel of Western University note that physicians, lawyers and architects, whose occupations emphasize on precision, and also those in leadership roles are at higher risk for perfectionism-related suicide, citing the recent cases of prominent perfectionists who died by suicide.

Suicidal thoughts linked to external pressures to be perfect
Their article, "The Destructiveness of Perfectionism Revisited: Implications for the Assessment of Suicide Risk and the Prevention of Suicide," published this week in the American Psychological Association journal, Review of General Psychology, highlights several concerns, including how suicide thoughts can be linked to external pressures to be perfect.

The authors document how being exposed to relentless demands to be perfect, a concept they refer to as socially prescribed perfectionism, is linked consistently with hopelessness and suicide. Other key themes discussed are:
  • how perfectionistic self-presentation and self-concealment can lead to suicides that occur without warning; and 
  • how perfectionists often come up with thorough and precise suicide plans.
Perfectionism and hopelessness
"We summarize data showing consistent links between perfectionism and hopelessness and discuss the need for an individualized approach that recognizes the heightened risk for perfectionists," Flett says adding, "They also tend to experience hopelessness, psychological pain, life stress, overgeneralization, and a form of emotional perfectionism that restricts the willingness to disclose suicidal urges and intentions."
*  *  *  *  *
For several years I worked on suicide hotline where we were taught to evaluate the suicidal potential of a caller.  In brief, we were trained to look for two things:
  • A plan - how well thought out and practical?
  • Ready means to carry out their plan - if they talk of shooting themselves and have a loaded gun in their other hand, this is for real.
Related posts:
*  *  *  *  *
Story Source: Materials provided by York University.  Flett, Gordon L.; Hewitt, Paul L.; Heisel, Marnin J. The destructiveness of perfectionism revisited: Implications for the assessment of suicide risk and the prevention of suicide. Review of General Psychology, Vol 18(3), Sep 2014.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Workout supplements: An emerging eating disorder in men?

Image
therewontbeanydoves.wordpress.com When developing a fictional character, you may not think about the character using large amounts of over-the-counter dietary supplements.  Especially a man who uses large amounts of workout supplements. While there has been widespread publicity on the dangers of the non-prescribed use of anabolic steroids, not much is said about legal, over-the-counter supplements.  Are there risks?  And if so, what are they?  There are several things the writer should consider. Supplement use is becoming an eating disorder with many men who use them to prepare for and recover from a workout. There is growing evidence of a link between muscle-building supplements and testicular cancer. There is evidence that over-the counter medications and supplements are the most common causes of drug-induced liver failure (a rare event, but still a risk.)  There is even evidence that, “certain popular herbal and dietary supplements can also cause liver damage,"
Read more

Remember faces but not names? You got it wrong.

Image
Source:   Daily Excelsior So, you think you're good at remembering faces, but terrible with names? New research has revealed we are actually better at remembering names than faces The cringe-worthy experience of not being able to remember an acquaintance's name leads many of us to believe we are terrible with names. However, new research has revealed this intuition is misleading; we are actually better at remembering names than faces. With the Christmas party season fast approaching, there will be plenty of opportunity to re-live the familiar, and excruciatingly-awkward, social situation of not being able to remember an acquaintance's name. This cringe-worthy experience leads many of us to believe we are terrible at remembering names. However, new research has revealed this intuition is misleading; we are actually better at remembering names than faces. The authors of the study, from the University of York, suggest that when we castigate ourselves f
Read more

How laughter leads to love.

Image
James Cagney rubs a grapefruit half in the face of Mae Clarke  in the classic flick, Public Enemy (1931), written by Kubec Glasmon and John Bright, adaptation for the screen by Harvey Thew.  Funny? Yes.  A rom-com?  Not really.  Great scene, though. Between romance novels and rom-com movies and television, there is a never ending, ever growing market for romance.  So what leads to romance?  Of everything, it is laughter.  Not at, but with.  So here's how it works:  Boy meets girl.  Boy gets the girl to laugh.  (Add a few tasty comedic or dramatic interludes), and viola, girl catches boy (after boy makes a complete horse's ass of himself,) and the happy couple goes giggling into the sunset.   Formulaic?  Very much so.   Greatly entertaining?  Very much so. Until kids, mortgage and divorce. . . but that's a story for later. Here's a report on laughter in romance, with a link to the full study in the attribution. *  *  *  *  * Laught
Read more

Character Motivation: We all want high social status

Image
catalog.flatworldknowledge.com "Establishing that desire for status is a fundamental human motive matters because status differences can be demoralizing. "Whenever you don't feel valued by others it hurts.  The lack of status hurts people more than we think."   What motivates people? An important question for any writer of fiction or non-fiction.  How can an author or a screenwriter fully develop a character without at least some idea of what motivates this person? How to Feel Good about Yourself 12 Key Steps to Positive Self-Esteem by Christopher E. Ebbe Click on image to order Powell's Books All human beings desire a high level of social status A character's motivation, as this research from University of California, Berkeley Haas School of Business points out, could be money, sex, revenge - any number of things could motivate your character in this particular story line.  However, all human beings desire a high level of soci
Read more

CRIME: Life as a Gangsta is Short-lived

Image
www.imranomerart.com Although membership in a gang often is depicted as a lifelong commitment, the typical gang member joins at age 13 and only stays active for about two years. Apparently, there are as many stereotypes about being in a gang as there are about anything else the media covers.  The 30-second sound bite obviously simplifies things down to the point of distortion to the detriment of us all. This report from Sam Houston State University attempts to clarify several of the issues, and our suggested reading, a biography of a gang member will offer additional insight into the culture of gangs. For a historical retrospective, the book The Gangs of New York: An Informal History of the Underworld by Herbert Asbury is one I recommend.  And don't worry, it has nothing to do with the movie of the same name - other than a few of the characters share a name.  One thing I remember from this book is that many of the members of these gangs of he 19th century were adolesc
Read more