For Most People, Mistakes Are Uncomfortable. For Some, They Feel Overwhelming.
A typo in an email can ruin an entire day.
Constructive feedback feels devastating.
A parenting decision gets replayed for weeks.
A small misunderstanding becomes evidence that you’re failing.
From the outside, it can look like perfectionism.
Inside, it often feels more like fear.
Not fear of the mistake itself — but fear of what the mistake means.
Fear of disappointing someone. Of being judged or letting people down. Of realizing you’re not as capable as everyone thinks you are.
If you’ve ever wondered why one small mistake can feel so emotionally overwhelming, you’re not alone.
And the answer may have less to do with what’s happening now than with what getting it wrong meant earlier in your life.
When Mistakes Feel Dangerous
One of the things I hear from many high-functioning women is:
“I know I’m being hard on myself, but I can’t seem to stop.”
They understand logically that nobody expects perfection. They know everyone makes mistakes. They would never judge a friend as harshly as they judge themselves.
And yet, when they make a mistake, their nervous system reacts as though something important is at stake.
Not necessarily because of what is happening in the present moment, but because of what similar experiences have meant in the past.
For some people, mistakes were met with criticism.
For others, they brought embarrassment, shame, punishment, rejection, or withdrawal of affection.
Sometimes the message was explicit:
“You should know better.”
Sometimes it was more subtle:
“Good girls don’t make mistakes.”
“You need to try harder.”
“What will people think?”
And sometimes it wasn’t words at all — just a parent’s face tightening, a room going quiet, or a shift in tone that made your stomach drop.
Over time, you may learn a simple rule:
Getting it right feels safe.
Getting it wrong does not.
The Problem Isn’t High Standards
This is important.
The problem isn’t caring, wanting to do a good job, or having goals.
Many thoughtful, successful, compassionate people have high standards.
The difficulty begins when self-worth becomes attached to performance — when mistakes start to feel like evidence that something is wrong with you.
When “I made a mistake” quietly turns into:
“I am a mistake.”
That’s a very different experience.
And often, a much more painful one.
Why Insight Doesn’t Always Change It
Many women spend years trying to reason with themselves.
“It’s not a big deal.”
“Nobody cares.”
“Everyone makes mistakes.”
“I need to stop overthinking.”
Sometimes those reminders help.
Sometimes they don’t.
Because knowing something intellectually doesn’t automatically change the emotional learning your brain and body have accumulated through experience
You may know that a typo in an email isn’t dangerous. No one has ever been carried out of the office because they used “their” instead of “there.”
Just ask my dyslexic self. I have accumulated considerable evidence.
But if mistakes have repeatedly been associated with criticism, humiliation, conflict, or disconnection, your nervous system may still respond as though the stakes are much higher than they actually are now.
Your chest tightens. Your stomach drops. Your mind starts replaying the moment, searching for what went wrong.
This is why insight alone doesn’t always create lasting change.
You can understand a pattern and still feel caught inside it.
How Trauma and Perfectionism Can Become Connected
Not everyone who struggles with perfectionism has experienced trauma.
But for some, perfectionism develops as a way of protecting themselves from experiences that once felt painful or unsafe.
If criticism felt painful, getting things right could help you avoid it.
If unpredictability felt unsettling, control could create a sense of safety.
If approval felt conditional, achievement could become a way of securing connection.
The strategy made sense at the time.
In many cases, it helped you succeed, earn praise, avoid conflict, stay prepared, or stay one step ahead.
But what once protected you can eventually become exhausting.
Because perfectionism keeps moving the finish line.
You finally get one thing right, and apparently there is now another thing you should have been doing better all along.
No achievement ever feels quite enough, and no success lasts very long before there’s something else to get right.
The nervous system stays on alert — quietly scanning for the next mistake, a constant hum of tension beneath the surface.
How EMDR Can Help
One of the things that surprises people about EMDR is that we don’t need one big, obvious traumatic event to work with.
EMDR can also be used to work with distressing experiences and memories that contributed to beliefs such as:
“I have to get everything right.”
“Mistakes aren’t safe.”
“I need to be perfect to be accepted.”
“If I disappoint people, something bad will happen.”
Rather than focusing only on present-day behavior, EMDR can help identify and process experiences connected to those beliefs and reactions.
As those memories are processed, the old experience may begin to carry less emotional intensity in the present.
This isn’t about erasing memories.
It’s about changing your relationship to them.
Moments that once felt sharp and immediate may begin to feel more distant. Your body may not react as intensely. The same situation may carry less urgency or emotional charge.
You might still notice the mistake — but without the same drop in your stomach, the same rush of panic, or the same need to replay it over and over.
The mistake still matters.
It just doesn’t have to feel catastrophic.
What Healing Often Looks Like
People sometimes assume healing means becoming carefree — never worrying, never caring, never making mistakes.
That’s not what I usually see.
What I see is quieter.
A woman receives feedback and doesn’t spiral for three days.
A parent makes a decision and trusts herself afterward.
A professional notices a mistake and corrects it without questioning her worth.
Someone who once replayed every interaction begins, slowly, to let things go.
The mistake still exists.
But it no longer defines them.
Because healing isn’t about lowering your standards.
It’s about separating your worth from your performance.
A Gentle Reflection
Think about the last mistake that stayed with you longer than you wanted it to.
Maybe everyone else had moved on hours ago. Your brain, however, had scheduled a full retrospective.
What made it feel so significant?
What were you afraid it meant about you?
And where do you think you first learned that getting something wrong was dangerous?
You don’t need to have the answers right away.
Sometimes these questions open the door to understanding yourself with a little more compassion.
And often, that’s where healing begins.
If you’re noticing these patterns in yourself and want support untangling them, you’re welcome to reach out.
Until we meet again — breathe gently, walk slowly, and treat yourself with kindness.
— Iris
A Note About the Information Shared Here
This article is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for mental health treatment, medical advice, or individualized care.