Martian Notes

Here goes the disclaimer. This blogpost is not a scientific paper but an interesting finding from an amateur life observer.

Just like the start of many other similar blogposts, it suddenly occurs to me that one common enemy of happiness may be lurking around near us, but commonly goes unnoticeable. It may not be the exacting supervisors, overbearing co-workers or difficult neighbors. It is much closer, more relatable. Find a mirror, or turn on the front camera of your phone, and you will see it.

Yes, it is, ourselves, who are the hidden enemy of our own happiness.

Since when we stop ourselves from being happy? Thinking of a scenario that we complete a long-time project, we feel immense satisfaction when we finish the final stroke. The sense of achievement brings true merriment. However, if we take another look after completion or we compare ours with those of others, we may identify some flaws that we did not notice earlier. If we already submitted the work and could not change it any further, the fresh joyfulness would soon turn into anger or regret that is hard to swallow.

Consequently, we condemn ourselves why we did not go to the extremes or blame any external factors that may have affect our functioning, such as a distracting phone call or a noisy domestic surrounding. Self-condemnation casts a cloud over any happy, sunny days. Such unsatisfaction, regret or doubt could be triggered in many ways. Thanks to technology, our inner competitive spirits grow in magnitude, as social media allows constant oversharing and bragging. Self-inflicted peer competition hinders us from enjoyment of our own success or simple pleasures that we used to relish.

Perfectionism is an apparent infection, posing threat most to the young and middle-aged groups. Victims suffering from the eternal pursuit of perfection often express anxiety, anguish and deprivation of happiness. There is a huge gap in the available evidence and the realities of perfectionism syndrome. We only know that it has a high prevalence and could be easily pervasive through social media. There are great needs for researches in its disease burdens, clinical symptoms and accessible cure.

So the question is, do we diagnose ourselves as one of the victioms of the perfectionism syndrome?