Dr. Harry Barry

We're going to talk about perfectionism though, which appears to be on the rise, particularly amongst children and adolescents.

So what is it?

Why can it be so harmful and how do we manage it?

I'm joined on the line by Dr. Harry Barry, who's a GP and expert in mental health.

Hello, Harry.

Hello, Clare.

Great to be with you.

Lovely to talk to you.

So, perfectionism, is it on the increase, firstly?

Yes, it is on the increase.

Unfortunately, it's on the increase.

And it's particularly on the increase amongst our children and adolescents.

And I think, you know, it's very interesting.

Perfectionism is a personality trait where we set these excessively high standards for ourselves.

And when we can't achieve them, the real secret to perfectionism, we then regard ourselves as a failure.

So it's...

It's an incredibly, I suppose, devastating condition really for our mental health and wellbeing.

And like it can be described in two ways.

We kind of self orientated where we're putting the pressure on ourselves.

Or it can be socially prescribed where we're really allowing the outside world, particularly social media, to put pressure on ourselves.