Read the blog
Browse through the blog by selecting your topic below, using the search bar, or signing up for our newsletter to get tips straight to your inbox!
October Scaries: Perfectionism and the Anxiety Spiral
Perfectionist kids, teens, and college students have trouble ignoring their perfectionistic tendencies and focusing on the challenge at hand.
Our brains prevent us from fully engaging because they get so worried about what a poor grade, poor score, or poor performance means about us. Many times, the kids and teens I work with will engage in an anxious spiral. It usually looks something like:
If I get less than an A on this test, that means I have a bad grade
If I have a bad grade, that means I’m doing poorly in this class
I might even fail this class
And other classes
And I’ll barely graduate highschool
And I won’t get into the college I want
And I won’t be able to go to medical school
Which means I’ll never be a doctor
My life will be ruined
But when we take a step back, we can see that the anxiety spiral is little bit out of control.
There’s no way, when we use logic, that getting less than an A on your test means that you’re life is ruined. Our anxious minds just tell us this because they want us to be prepared for the worst case scenario.
How to Help Your Child Be OK With Failure
Failure is really important!
I specialize in working with kids and teens who are consistently high performers in the classroom. And a lot of times, underneath it all, there's a ton of anxiety. They worry about failure. They get so focused on small things they've done wrong that they can't see the greater picture. So for people who have serious anxiety, an A- compared to an A is a huge difference.
Failure helps you to gain perspective, and not lose the forest for the trees.