<p>Is having excessively high standards a cause of depression or more precisely a cause of a void of positive emotions / dopamine? Certainly it appears that high achieving people and perfectionists tend to exhibit a set of behaviours that collectively exacerbate the feeling of depression—being narrowly focused on one realm of life, obsession on details rather than on progress, incrementally setting the bar higher after reaching a point of success and dismissing the achievement. It seems that these collection of behaviours causes the mind to process any positive emotion as undeserving and counterproductive regardless of the significance of the achievement that causes the positive emotion since the bar is constantly set higher and thus incrementally less attainable. Thus in short, is depression something that is part and parcel with the perfectionist view of reality and having excessively high standards? Furthermore, is this the optimal state for the high achiever or rather their natural state for achieving intended and “unattainable” results?</p>
<p><a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Paul-Hewitt/publication/14479426_Perfectionism_and_Depression_Longitudinal_Assessment_of_a_Specific_Vulnerability_Hypothesis/links/0f3175355e1d60bf80000000/Perfectionism-and-Depression-Longitudinal-Assessment-of-a-Specific-Vulnerability-Hypothesis.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Paul-Hewitt/publication/14479426_Perfectionism_and_Depression_Longitudinal_Assessment_of_a_Specific_Vulnerability_Hypothesis/links/0f3175355e1d60bf80000000/Perfectionism-and-Depression-Longitudinal-Assessment-of-a-Specific-Vulnerability-Hypothesis.pdf</a></p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-10-21T21:13:56.487Z
Thanks for including a reference! Can you contextualize it a bit? Did that reference spark your question? Do you have a specific question about the content of the reference?
Bryan Krause
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-10-21T21:37:21.533Z
@BryanKrause I have always observed a correlation between depression and perfectionism and wanted to understand whether the behaviours exhibited by perfectionists were conducive to the manifestation of a voided state of dopamine and whether such an emotional state was a necessary precursor and pre-requisite to being high achieving. Consequently I found research detailing such relationship.
user63143
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-10-21T22:05:46.927Z
Okay, but in the body of your question it's just block of text and then suddenly a link provided without context. What's the link for, what should someone reading your question follow the link to find, what's it's relevance to the rest of the text? Additionally I would caution against framing depression as a "voided state of dopamine" without supporting evidence, as that does not seem to be an accurate description.
Bryan Krause
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-10-21T22:13:37.657Z
It would, I believe be useful to you to read [this post](https://psychology.stackexchange.com/questions/1415/can-critical-thinking-be-taught) to see how links can be integrated within the body of the question in a way which helps the reader get the point of each idea they express. Another [here](https://psychology.stackexchange.com/questions/987/what-are-current-neuronal-explanations-and-models-of-consciousness) shows how a quote can be included to enhance clarity.
Jiminy Cricket.
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-10-26T05:01:16.133Z
More to the point with what @BryanKrause has said, skimming over the linked PDF, it seems to answer your question. Is the link provided a way of providing an answer? If so, you can answer your own question here and provide the link in support of your answer.
Chris Rogers
<social-psychology>
Is depression part and parcel with high achievers?
user63143
# Is depression part and parcel with high achievers?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2022-10-21)

Is having excessively high standards a cause of depression or more precisely a cause of a void of positive emotions / dopamine? Certainly it appears that high achieving people and perfectionists tend to exhibit a set of behaviours that collectively exacerbate the feeling of depression—being narrowly focused on one realm of life, obsession on details rather than on progress, incrementally setting the bar higher after reaching a point of success and dismissing the achievement. It seems that these collection of behaviours causes the mind to process any positive emotion as undeserving and counterproductive regardless of the significance of the achievement that causes the positive emotion since the bar is constantly set higher and thus incrementally less attainable. Thus in short, is depression something that is part and parcel with the perfectionist view of reality and having excessively high standards? Furthermore, is this the optimal state for the high achiever or rather their natural state for achieving intended and “unattainable” results?

<https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Paul-Hewitt/publication/14479426_Perfectionism_and_Depression_Longitudinal_Assessment_of_a_Specific_Vulnerability_Hypothesis/links/0f3175355e1d60bf80000000/Perfectionism-and-Depression-Longitudinal-Assessment-of-a-Specific-Vulnerability-Hypothesis.pdf>

**Tags:** social-psychology

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Thanks for including a reference! Can you contextualize it a bit? Did that reference spark your question? Do you have a specific question about the content of the reference?  
> **username_0**: @BryanKrause I have always observed a correlation between depression and perfectionism and wanted to understand whether the behaviours exhibited by perfectionists were conducive to the manifestation of a voided state of dopamine and whether such an emotional state was a necessary precursor and pre-requisite to being high achieving. Consequently I found research detailing such relationship.  
> **username_1**: Okay, but in the body of your question it's just block of text and then suddenly a link provided without context. What's the link for, what should someone reading your question follow the link to find, what's it's relevance to the rest of the text? Additionally I would caution against framing depression as a "voided state of dopamine" without supporting evidence, as that does not seem to be an accurate description.  
> **username_2**: It would, I believe be useful to you to read [this post](https://psychology.stackexchange.com/questions/1415/can-critical-thinking-be-taught) to see how links can be integrated within the body of the question in a way which helps the reader get the point of each idea they express. Another [here](https://psychology.stackexchange.com/questions/987/what-are-current-neuronal-explanations-and-models-of-consciousness) shows how a quote can be included to enhance clarity.  
> **username_3**: More to the point with what @BryanKrause has said, skimming over the linked PDF, it seems to answer your question. Is the link provided a way of providing an answer? If so, you can answer your own question here and provide the link in support of your answer.  

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