Up: [[Compulsion]] Created: 2026-04-02 Perfectionism doesn’t have to lead to [[all-or-nothing]] thinking and behaviour, but for me it usually does. And it is always a problem because all-or-nothing sets up perfection and hyper-vigilance against feeling completely out of control or disconnected. This is a [[Tension of Opposites]] that cannot ever be resolved because they are false opposites. Instead of resolution, I end up experiencing an [[Enantiodromia]]. An example is trying to be perfect in my food consumption and eventually, unable to endure that, swinging to the opposite pole of reckless abandon, bingeing with the intention of picking up perfection again tomorrow, next week, or whenever I get to a month that begins on a Monday. I think the all-or-nothing complex is typically borne of an early unmet need for a sense of safety and order. But, of course, it doesn’t work, it cannot work. In *Addiction to Perfection*, [[Marion Woodman]] explains that locking into one rigid way of behaving in an attempt to get control of life denies the fact that I’ve already lost control. It is, she says, a desire for death, not life, because if life is turned into something perfect it will be lifeless.