ANANKASTIC PERSONALITY: TRAITS AND TREATMENTS - ECONOMÍA - 2025

The ananchastic personality is characteristic of those people who are obsessed with perfection, whether it is cleanliness, order, schedule or schedules. The difference with a perfectionist person is that those who suffer from anankastic traits generalize it to all areas of life.

Do you feel bad if you don't control every aspect of your life? Do you spend a lot of time on every detail no matter how irrelevant it is? If you identify with these issues, you may have this syndrome.

A person has an ananchastic personality when he worries too much about details, schedules, as well as complying with all the rules, among other hobbies. In addition, she is defined by always being indecisive and having doubts in everything she does, which leads her to always be worried about what is happening around her.

They also tend to insist that others follow the same routine that they follow, often being a problem for other people if they oppose them or do not submit to their requests.

This disorder is included within the obsessive-compulsive spectrum and there are various degrees of obsession as well as behaviors.

Anankastic Personality Traits

Next, we explain the most important traits or characteristics of the anankastic personality. These do not usually appear in all people in the same way, nor do all these characteristics have to be present in them.

1- Perfectionists

Most significant trait, so it is not surprising that they seek perfection in everything they do in their daily lives, such as at work or even with themselves.

In addition, they tend not only to be demanding with themselves, but also with the people around them, if they are not up to their demands they become very frustrated.

This type of personality can cause damage to the health of people who suffer from it, leading for example to contractures, stress and anxiety, among others.

2- Responsible

Due to their high level of demand, they are very responsible with the tasks they perform and want to perform. They are usually the typical people who stay up very late in companies, finishing projects because they still don't like how they have turned out or even because they continue to reflect on an idea and how to improve it.

They do not conceive the idea of ​​being irresponsible, since their level of commitment to the tasks and assignments they have is very high. So much so that they are even able to continue working even when they are not in optimal health.

3- Somewhat controlling

They can become very controlling with those close to them, since they also want others to give their best and be just as "perfect" as they are.

This can lead them to be quite harsh with people with whom they have a high level of trust, even hurting them without realizing it due to their high levels of demand.

A clear example would be that if this person wants you to do some activity instead of another, he will do everything possible for you to do it and not satisfied with that he will demand that you be the best. If you are not, they will be disappointed.

4- Fair people

They are usually people who have a high degree of justice, having a clear distinction between what is right and what is wrong according to what she understands. For this reason, despite her level of demand, she knows how to reward the effort that others make to be up to the task. This makes you very proud of them.

Despite his high level of perfectionism, he tries to achieve his goals without engaging in malicious activities that may cause harm to another person. On the contrary, they want to get where they want to go on their own merits.

5- They tend to have brief relationships

As you may be imagining, maintaining a relationship with a person with this type of personality is very complicated because it is never enough. That is, they demand so much of their partner that they never live up to their wishes.

For this reason, let's say that their relationships will last as long as their partners endure because, as we will see later, people with ananchastic personality do not conceive failure or error very well in their personal or professional life.

6- Feelings of misunderstanding

They tend to feel very misunderstood not only by those closest to them, but by the world in general. Nobody understands why they tend to be so demanding of themselves or why they get so frustrated when something doesn't go their way or they make a mistake.

This sometimes leads them to feel very alone and not find the support they need, since they themselves do not know why they are like this.

7- They are not satisfied with anything

Whatever they do, they will never be happy with their work or that of others. Once again, their high level of demand leads them to want to touch a non-existent perfection that not even they themselves (no matter how much they want to) can achieve since it exceeds their limits.

For people with this personality type, the activities they do can always be improved and will never be completely finished.

8- They are very negative

They have a high degree of negativity in their life, since they do not believe they are good enough for something positive to happen to them. Sometimes they even think that they don't deserve them even if they work very hard to get them. Your extreme negativity will always be present.

Negativity accompanies them in all aspects of their life, both professional and personal. They will always look for an explanation or some reason to say why that good thing should have happened to someone else and not to themselves.

9- There are no middle terms in your actions

Something that tends to annoy the people around them is that there are no middle terms in their thinking and actions. Either something is black or white, or things are made perfect or they are not done.

In these people there is no room for us to do something to try or to enjoy and relax a bit, since they have a high level of demand and competitiveness.

10- They can't stand failure

If something does not turn out as they expected or if they fail in what they have been working for, they do not take it as something constructive and from what they can learn. The most unhappy people in the world feel with their mistakes.

As we have mentioned before, this can cause serious health problems because who can live with such a level of daily demand?

11- He cares a lot about what others think of him

They are usually people who place a lot of value on what others think of them because, although it may not seem like it, they have a high degree of insecurity and little self-esteem that triggers these behaviors of perfection and competitiveness.

12- They do not give responsibilities to others

It is not that they believe they are better than others, but they think that due to their high level of demand and responsibility they will be able to perform the jobs or any other function better than other people.

For this reason, they may find it difficult to collaborate in a group because they will try to load all the tasks to him instead of sharing them with others.

13- They do not enjoy life

All this high level of demand, competitiveness and frustrations caused by mistakes, means that they do not enjoy life. These people live stressed and thinking at all times about what they have to do and how they should do it, so they do not conceive of taking time for themselves.

Treatment

If some anankastic personality traits coincide in your personality traits, you don't have to worry. You don't have to do it either if, although they mostly coincide, they don't affect your life drastically.

We speak of a disorder when a person's life is completely affected by it, and in this case this type of personality can lead to a type of disorder.

It is estimated that the perfectionist syndrome reaches a value of between 7 and 12% of the population. As we have already mentioned previously, it is included within obsessive compulsive disorders (Álvarez, 2007).

The treatment that is usually given to people who have this type of personality disorder are antidepressant and neuroleptive drugs. However, this is not entirely effective if it is not accompanied by treatments such as psychotherapy. The most effective and recommended therapy is cognitive-behavioral therapy.

In summary

Everyone at some point in their life, due to the circumstances they are experiencing, can present some of these characteristics or even have them in their own personality without necessarily being anankastic.

If they do not drastically affect their daily life, they also do not have to have anankastic personality disorder. These types of behaviors or characteristics are more acute in times when we feel more stressed than usual, so we do not have to worry if we really do not comply with everything we have been saying so far.

References

1. Álvarez Romero, M. (2007). Perfectionist syndrome: The anankastic. Almuzara.
2. Álvarez Romero, M., Fernández Quirós, J. González Fernández, M., Trampotová, O. (2012). Treatment of perfectionism: 30 years of experience. XII Virtual Congress of psiquiatría.com. Interpsychic.
3. DSM V.