In my reading about the forms of perfectionism-- which, honestly, I don't think are very well-studied at this point, because I'm pretty sure that so-called "socially prescribed" perfectionism is more than one distinct TYPE of perfectionism...
there is evidently a VERY high correlation between that particular subtype of perfectionism and: a) eating disorders/body image disorders, b) depression, and yes, c) suicide.
This makes little sense at first blush-- because it sure SEEMS like inwardly-directed perfectionism ought to correlate as well. And there are some subset of people with apparent socially-prescribed perfectionism that don't seem to have this guilt/shame/identity complex that fuels those other problems. That's why I think that ultimately, socially prescribed perfectionism is going to turn out to be at least two distinct types of perfectionism.
It's very sad to have a person who is utterly convinced that they "don't measure up" to standards held by everyone they know... and have NO way to leverage those beliefs since they are internal and
irrational to start with-- no amount of external evidence convinces them for long.
