Dear Sam:

You are very welcome.

I would like to suggest a correction in the following thought you expressed: “I think my parents (unintentionally) put a lot of pressure on me to succeed”-

It makes sense to me that they intentionally put a lot of pressure on you to succeed. What they didn’t intend, most likely, is for you to be harmed by that pressure.

I suppose they believed that the pressure will motivate you to succeed and that success (material, professional) will make you happy. What they didn’t intend was for that pressure to cause you the anxiety that it has, and anxiety is always a de-motivator. It harms.

Your expectations of always getting an “A” and always performing perfectly otherwise is harmful to you in exactly the area you want to succeed. Not that you can ever perform perfectly on an ongoing basis, no matter the expectations. But you are more likely to err, to repeat errors and to not succeed with these expectations operating in your mind.

I hope that in therapy, you are working or will be working on this very thing: correcting your expectations so they fit reality. For as long as your expectations and core beliefs do not match reality, they will do you disservice.

Post again, anytime.

anita