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The Fear Of Making Mistakes Or Imperfection – Atelophobia

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For me I can say that I’m a bit of a perfectionist, but not a true one in nature. I’ve noticed in myself that whenever I make a mistake at work or say something inappropriate, a flood of negative emotions soon comes. For years now I’ve been constantly beating myself up over my mistakes. I always took it as low self-confidence. However, recently I realized that I have a slight fear of making mistakes.

It was such a revelation when I realized that! My brain must have been in a fog, because I never thought of it as a “fear.” When I look back at how I felt when I started thinking about my mistakes the same feelings of “fear” came over me. Like a rapid heart rate and unsure of what’s going to happen next. It’s fear. A stupid fear, but real to me at the time.

I guess I hold myself to such high standards that when I fail, I just can’t take it. A flood of negative emotions comes over me, very similar to that of “fear.” Since I was a child things always had to be perfect or I would not feel happy. I’ve slowly learned to let things go, but now realize that it was “fear” that was holding me down!

So what is the name of this fear? Atelophobia, the fear of making mistakes or imperfection. From what I’ve read it can be a form of OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder), especially if you are constantly checking your actions, so that you won’t make a mistake.

I can’t tell you the relief that I feel now that I know that I’ve really been “fearing” making a mistake. Now that I know, once I get those fears it should be easier to correct with behaviour modification. So when the fear of making a mistake starts, I know now that I have to tell myself that there is nothing that I can do. It’s normal to make mistakes and I have to just let it go.

“When you know better you do better.” — Maya Angelou, famous inspirational poet.