The Secret Sorrows of Over-Achievers

http://www.thebookoflife.org/the-secret-sorrows-of-over-achievers/

by randomname2 • 8 years ago

47 16 8 years ago

dasil0032• 8 years ago

A facile assessment. We all have our demons, over-achiever or not.

I Suppose one could say the same thing about your post. Yes we all have personal issues to deal with but what level of insecurity or damage pushes individuals to use this as a coping mechanism.

I don’t know about others but quite often when I see what I, and likely most people, classify as an over-achiever I usually wonder what could push them to want to do those things. Best guess is they need to keep their mind in overdrive lest some personal reflection occur. I don’t envy them or their successes.

coldtea• 8 years ago

That's even more of a facile cop-out.

We all have our demons, but some have more demons than others, and this includes over-achievers, junkies, and other such categories of people more than the general population...

dasil0032• 8 years ago

Cop-out from what? I'm not the one posting an article diagnosing the psychological problems of a broad and ill-defined class of people, I'm responding to one specific article that I think is bollocks.

To be clear, it's not that I don't think there are a lot of over-achievers that are overcompensating for something, of course there are, but what do I gain from trying to analyze them in the abstract? It's an impotent form of mass-judgement that I can see no use for except as a crutch for one with fragile self-esteem. Everyone needs to live their life as they see fit, and it will go better if they can be honest with themselves, but I'm not going to sit in judgement of someone who is not harming others merely because they exhibit obsessive behavior.

goatlover• 8 years ago

The issue in the article is people who sacrifice their life balance to deal with their inner demons. But when they accomplish whatever goal they're sacrificing for, it doesn't resolve the inner demon. The overachieving doesn't meet the actual goal. It's maladaptive.

Maybe that's fine for the rest of us who get to bask in the glory of their accomplishments, but is it really worth it to the overachievers? Jim Ryun (former world record holder in the mile) and "Pistol" Pete Maravich (former NBA star) would be two examples of people who overachieved, crashed and burned, and then found their life balance.

mankash666• 8 years ago

Where's the evidence? Why is this being upvoted?

cpncrunch2• 8 years ago

Here is a lay overview with links to references:

https://www.healthcentral.com/article/personality-types-pron...

cpncrunch2• 8 years ago

Being an over-achiever has also been linked to developing chronic fatigue syndrome:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0022399995...

My own view is that everyone is prone to burnout and CFS after chronic stress, but over-achievers tend to be more likely to push through the negative symptoms of chronic stress, which then results in CFS.

UncleEntity2• 8 years ago

But these over-achievers are all the while trying to secure something far more tricky, unusual and unmentioned: they are trying – through their work – to correct an aspect of a troubled emotional past.

Umm, non sequitur much?

I'm supposed to believe every kid who finds they're good at something, decides to pursue this thing and then reaches success over their peers (who are also good at this thing) are secretly running away from daddy issues or whatever?

My "troubled emotional past" turned me into a complete slacker – though I do over-achieve at that so maybe they're on to something after all?

Hydraulix9892• 8 years ago

There's a distinction from achievement and being an _over_ achiever.

UncleEntity2• 8 years ago

Who makes the distinction of how much achievement is too much?

For some strange reason The Song of the Lark by Willa Cather pops into my head as a counterpoint to TFA.

jhanschoo• 8 years ago

Ah, I see that this is by the terrible "The School of Life".

They constantly produce videos that claim to have distilled philosophical works into something practical for everyday life. They often give bad advice alongside comforting you that those grapes you couldn't reach were sour anyways. There are many critiques of this company, but I've linked a critique here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0uKnF_6E0Q

gowld• 8 years ago

That video is unimpressive. It "takes down" SoL for not being athiest, for not being liked by the "real" philosophers at http://reddit.com/r/philosophy , and for giving practical advice on how to live a good life instead of constructing abstract metaphysical theories of the Universe.

marcus_holmes• 8 years ago

Their stuff really helped me deal with my depression.

As academic philosophy, it might be crap, I don't know. Nor do I care.

As practical advice for someone struggling through mental health issues, SoL is awesome.

moosebear• 8 years ago

That article didn’t have any sources and blamed pathological perfectionism on psychic wounds. Ok, it’s not a bad theory, but remember when we figured out that some peptic ulcers came from H. pylori, not just being uptight?

Behold some really fascinating research on perfectionism, OCD, and Tourette’s:

1. Perfectionism predicts OCD symptoms. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0005796795...

2. Tourette’s, OCD, PANDAS share immune disregulation link. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5174185/

3. Yale: Mice with grooming tics cured by giving them histamine https://news.yale.edu/2017/06/05/tourette-tics-vanish-mice-t...

4. Oxford: Connection between basal ganglia, histamine, and OCD & friends https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4917894/

I know the article was about personality/perfectionism not tics/OCD, but I find this idea that issues around “obsessiveness” could have an immune/histamine/basal ganglia cause so fascinating, since I myself have OCD and would very much enjoy not having it, even if that took the edge off my high-achieving/driven personality. They haven’t teased it all out and there is no medical treatment based on all this yet. But maybe someday?

The Secret Sorrows of Over-Achievers

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