At risk for high achievement

Does being driven make you sick, or does sickness drive you?

We tend to look at high achievement not only as inherently positive but as virtuous. A person with high grades and multiple achievements draws praise and envy, not alarm.

It is easy for me to see the Association of Higher Parental and Grandparental Education and Higher School Grades With Risk of Hospitalization for Eating Disorders in Females as a manifestation of pathology. I have seen how anxiety and compulsivity and painful perfectionism can bring rewards - and I have seen the cost. Few of the really accomplished people I know are "happy." And few of the happy people I know are the top of their class/profession/accomplishment.

I no longer see high achievement as an unalloyed good. I no longer cheer quite as loud at top grades or awards. I have no stomach any more for gossip about those whose paths are simple.

I hang my head at the conclusion here: "Thus, higher parental and grandparental education and higher school grades may increase risk of hospitalization for eating disorders in female offspring, possibly because of high internal and external demands." I know that people will read that and continue to blame parents for driving their kids too hard and showing a bad example. I read that and make a different conclusion: that families with a high degree of anxiety are also at risk for eating disorders. Not that your social class and achievement cause pressures that cause eating disorders, but that anxiety puts you at risk for high achievement and for co-morbid conditions like eating disorders.

I'm not arguing for sloth, here, or low expectations. But I am hoping that as we come to better understand mental health and illness we become more sensitive to the fact that more is not always better. Mental suffering at the hands of high anxiety is not repaid in accomplishment - it is just suffering.

Comments

  1. Dear Drs. Moonga et al:

    Cart, horse, ur doing it rong.

    Sincerely, IrishUp.

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  2. I think that some of the family achievement traits are related to perfectionism, which is known to be heritable. Both my parents and I are freaky perfectionists, so it wasn't weird for me to be intense and driven about school.

    But the whole grade/hospitalization relationship makes me chuckle, as my friend and I both had AN and we were both at the top of our college class (first and second, respectively) and we were both very ill all during college. I'm wondering if there could be a relationship between perfectionism or some other trait that helps explain this relationship.

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  3. All too often, people mistake correlation for cause. I don't know how many times I've seen a newspaper report "X causes Y" because some study has shown that there may be a statistically significant correlation between the number of instances where X and Y are both true. I would have hoped the Oxford Journals would do better in their conclusions.

    Personally, I was driven to acheive highly. That was largely because I had a little sister complex and felt like I was in the shadow of my sister, who was tallented at music and always got great grades. But that wasn't because my parents or anyone else were pushing me to do well. It was because I thought I ought to be doing well. It's hard to draw the line between internal and external influences when it comes to motivation, but my parents never implied that they'd love me less if I got a B instead of an A.

    Looking back, I think getting a B in GCSE German was probably a great turning point for me. I didn't get an A and the world didn't end.

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  4. Really? Few accomplished people you know are happy? I know lots of very accomplished happy people.

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  5. Anonymous,

    I'm really thinking hard about what you've asked. I have had the honor of knowing a few very accomplished people, and I also know a few genuinely happy people - they're not the same people. But I am talking here about the extremes: people at the very top of their fields or activities - and people who not only appear happy but one feels happy to just be around year after year. Most of us fall between the extremes.

    What I'm trying to say is that being more accomplished does not seem to correlate with pleasure in the accomplishment or achievements. I suspect, now that I've seen the ravages of perfectionism, that that unnatural focus and rigidity may bring accomplishment but at a great cost.

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  6. Another possible factor: higher parental education correlates with higher income. Higher income correlates with health insurance and financial ability to pay for hospitalization. In other words, kids with eating disorders whose parents don't have high levels of education are less likely (sadly)to receive treatment, including hospitalization. I'm not saying that's the only explanation, but its a variable to be considered.

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  7. I know a few incredibly accomplished people, and two, of them have mentioned their fear of being "found out." One friend told me, "really I am a fake, and one day people will realize this." This from an award winning PhD. Another told me how he has to work extra hard so that people won't think he is a fraud...not so happy.

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  8. Hey Erica,
    This is a bit off Laura's original topic, but high achievers worrying that they're actually "a fake" is pretty common. Check out this NY times article on imposter syndrome:
    http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/05/health/05mind.html
    It's hard to tell what the genetic trait that links things together is- perfectionism, anxiety, etc. As far the correlation between being at the top of your field and happiness, I think the issue is that a lot of high achievers get to that point because they're never satisfied, always looking to improve. A few people have that inner drive without accompanying anxiety and fear, but it doesn't seem that common:)

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  9. The question is not "Does being driven make you sick, or does sickness drive you?" There's no reason it has to be either. Maybe they just tend to appear together.

    This is a correlation, not a causation. It bugs me when people forget this, as they also often do with the vegetarian/ED connection.

    Anecdotal evidence is basically worthless, but I know plenty of happy very accomplished people.


    Why can't you just celebrate achievement and not assume things about the achiever? All of the high achievers I knew in high school did it because they liked learning and were good at school. Is there really anything wrong with that?

    Academic achievement isn't even really celebrated that much today, compared with the enormous amount of attention even mediocre athletes get. It's a bit disappointing to see you writing things like this.

    "I'm not arguing for sloth, here, or low expectations. But I am hoping that as we come to better understand mental health and illness we become more sensitive to the fact that more is not always better. Mental suffering at the hands of high anxiety is not repaid in accomplishment - it is just suffering."

    I agree with this, and I think it's a real problem for some people. But you just can't assume that most high-achieving people are like this, or even that someone with an eating disorder is suffering because they are high-achieving.

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  10. "higher parental education correlates with higher income. Higher income correlates with health insurance and financial ability to pay for hospitalization"

    This doesn't apply to the study as health care and hospitalization are a given right and publicly funded in Sweden.

    ReplyDelete

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