The concept of mental health is no longer something that we shy away from and fortunately it is now seen and treated as physical health would be. This quote from a recent study on mental health I believe, sums it up well.

Being mentally healthy is more than just not being depressed or anxious. Being really mentally healthy allows us to perform at our best and reach our full potential.

In a recent article “How perfectionism hurts our girls” the focus was about the growing awareness of the dangers posed by perfectionist thinking in girls.

Below is a case study which highlights the typical behaviour of a girl exhibiting the signs of heading towards perfectionism:

Kellie is a Year 9 student, bright and capable. But increasingly, her marks have been well below her ability level. She struggles to finish in-class assignments, takes too long on other work, and will get teachers to read her drafts even when it isn’t required. With each ‘imperfect result’, her self-worth plummets. The pressure builds with the perception that her work will never be good enough.

Common traits included black and white thinking, critical self-talk, avoiding things as a means of coping, and generally negative thinking and reasoning.

If any of the above is ringing a bell for you with your daughter, then we need to take action. We need to work together to give her the skills to be more resilient and to re-focus on what we believe is the ‘normal’. A lot of this comes down to how they perceive what is “good enough” and we need to model this for them – take the pressure off them and show them that “doing your best” does not equal having to be perfect in all that we do. The answer is to provide “everyday strategies to enable striving and achievement to exist alongside flexibility, risk-taking, resilience and wellbeing.”

Case study taken from Parents Website: https://theparentswebsite.com.au/how-perfectionism-hurts-our-girls/

Karen Wright - Assistant Principal Students