Perfectionism can lead to alcoholism

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A new study suggested that certain character traits increase a person's vulnerability to severe alcohol addiction. In particular, one of these properties is the desire for perfection or perfectionism.

Alcohol addiction is a serious mental disorder. This is one of the main causes of mortality of the population belonging to the preventive category. Victims of alcohol addiction may have varying degrees of this disorder, depending on the diagnostic criteria. Although there are no major or dominant individual risk factors for the development of addiction, age, gender, family background, and socioeconomic factors may influence the onset of uncontrollable alcohol cravings. It was established that people with impaired cognitive control, impulsivity and negative emotions are more likely to experience alcohol addiction.

And now a new study has shown that such character traits as perfectionism and self-criticism, which lead to some violations of social ties, can become risk factors for the development of severe alcohol addiction. Belgian scientists involved in their observations 65 adults who had problems with alcohol and 65 of their peers in a control group without these problems. Each volunteer filled out a special questionnaire, with the help of which it was possible to make a scale of the level of perfectionism. It included, among others, self-oriented perfectionism, that is, exaggerated standards of performance that rely on the person himself, socially prescribed perfectionism, or high expectations of other people, and other-oriented perfectionism, or setting unrealistically high standards for others.

After processing all the data, it was found that the victims of alcohol addiction had a higher level of anxiety and depressive symptoms than the control group. When the researchers took anxiety and depressive symptoms into account, they also found that the alcoholics displayed more self-oriented and socially ascribed perfectionistic traits than the control group. In particular, they demonstrated unrealistic personal standards and increased sensitivity to other people's expectations. Self-oriented perfectionism in victims of alcohol addiction may be more common among men and people with a higher level of education.