Perfectionism, anxiety, depression, and anorexia

The data on comorbidity concurrent are very revealing.

What is this comorbidity?

People who have one disorder, show at least another, even in a secondary order.

Different studies offer us percentages where this statement is corroborated. For example, in the review carried out by Clark et al. (1995) on clinical samples, conclusions such as the following are obtained: 65% of patients diagnosed with dysthymia, 59% of patients with major depression, 77% of patients diagnosed with anorexia nervosa, 96% of patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and 80% of patients with drugs abuse have at least one other disorder.

From these data (which are only an example) it can easily be deduced that, based on current diagnostic criteria, the existence of comorbidity is usually the norm rather than the exception..

From this perspective, I consider it essential to take into account transdiagnostic dimensions, that is, variables that are present in different disorders, which therefore may have an explanatory function of the origin and maintenance of the problem.

In that sense and responding to my clinical experience, perfectionism, It is a dimension that is at the base and maintenance of different disorders that I treat in consultation.

Could we say, therefore, that if we treat perfectionism, the disorder will end?

We would all like to have such a simple cause - effect relationship in this profession. Obviously, the answer is not that easy, but I could say that the improvement that these patients would have if they managed their perfectionism in a more adaptive way, would be evident and not residual.

Imagine that a person with an eating disorder adaptively manage their need for perfection in their figure, their appearance and their weight.

Imagine also, a person with obsessive compulsive disorder as I have in consultation, where it could be allowed with wide margins to err, to make mistakes, to allow that something is not under the strict parameters that they establish as a norm.

Therefore, I am tempted to confirm that in psychotherapy it is more important to work beyond symptoms than a system of diagnostic categories, and go to dimensions that mark and consolidate psychological discomforts.

Do you think that handling a variable such as perfectionism would give results (especially in terms of relapses) in a person with obsessions, with anorexia, with anxiety?

It seems that it could be a great option.