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.
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.