
The Secret Sorrows of Over-Achievers - randomname2
http://www.thebookoflife.org/the-secret-sorrows-of-over-achievers/
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cpncrunch
Being an over-achiever has also been linked to developing chronic fatigue
syndrome:

[https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0022399995...](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0022399995000089)

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.

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UncleEntity
> 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?

~~~
Hydraulix989
There's a distinction from achievement and being an _over_ achiever.

~~~
UncleEntity
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.

~~~
Hydraulix989
That's not the distinction.

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jhanschoo
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](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0uKnF_6E0Q)

~~~
gowld
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](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.

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dasil003
A facile assessment. We all have our demons, over-achiever or not.

~~~
coldtea
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...

~~~
dasil003
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.

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moosebear
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...](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/000579679500017R)

2\. Tourette’s, OCD, PANDAS share immune disregulation link.
[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5174185/](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...](https://news.yale.edu/2017/06/05/tourette-tics-vanish-mice-treated-
histamine)

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

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mankash666
Where's the evidence? Why is this being upvoted?

~~~
cpncrunch
Here is a lay overview with links to references:

[https://www.healthcentral.com/article/personality-types-
pron...](https://www.healthcentral.com/article/personality-types-prone-to-
depression-which-one-are-you)

