Scarlet O'Hara Syndrome: what it is, symptoms, and how to overcome it

In recent years, more and more new syndromes have been sounded that, although they are not classified within the diagnostic manuals international or have not been widely accepted by the scientific community, it is convenient to know them due to their wide dissemination through various media. communication. One of them is Scarlet O'Hara syndrome.

Scarlet O'Hara syndrome has been commonly associated with procrastination, which consists of the action or habit of delaying actions, obligations or certain situations that should be dealt with soon due to laziness and/or fear of facing them, so that they end up being replaced by other less pressing and more irrelevant situations or tasks that could be more pleasant in the short term for person.

In this article we will see what Scarlet O'Hara syndrome is that has been discussed so much in recent years, but first we should briefly explain who Escarlata O'Hara is, the character who served as an intro

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Who is Scarlet O'Hara?

Scarlett O'Hara (known in the United States as Katie Scarlett O'Hara) is thethe protagonist of the novel “Gone with the Wind” which was published in 1936 by the American writer Margaret Mitchell and was adapted for the big screen in 1939, winning several Oscars.

This charismatic character is not the typical heroine of great nobility and good heart that everyone loves for her kindness, but is actually quite different. In reality, Scarlet is capricious, manipulative, and temperamental. But if there is something to highlight about her, it is her perseverance and her commitment when it comes to trying to get what she wants at all times, being a that she will serve him to survive in times of war although it will also cause him some problems as can be seen by reading the novel and / or watching the movie.

Scarlet O'Hara Syndrome is due to a class that utters Scarlet O'Hara when she is dumped by Rhett Butler, a she character of the plot with whom the protagonist married, despite the fact that she was actually in love with another man, Ashley Wilkes. At the moment when she is abandoned, he declares her intention to find the way to make her beloved return; however, she considers that it is too complex a matter to be able to tackle it hastily, so she says the following sentence: "I'll think about it tomorrow".

The phrase "I'll think about it tomorrow" by Escarlata O'Hara and also another quite common in the day to day of several people is the following: "I'll do it tomorrow". Both phrases have been associated with what in the field of psychology is known as procrastination, which is the habit of delaying obligations or tasks for the next day.

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What is Scarlet O'Hara syndrome?

As we said, the Scarlet O'Hara syndrome has become associated with procrastination as a result of the phrase "I'll think about it tomorrow” by Escarlata O’Hara, a character in the movie “Gone with the Wind”, so this syndrome would be related with the habit of procrastinating; and it is that this phrase appears with various variants on several occasions throughout the novel, so that it could be associated with an inherent trait of Escarlata O'Hara. For this reason, we are going to explain below what procrastination consists of or what has been coined with the name Scarlet O'Hara syndrome.

The word procrastination (from the Latin word "procrastinare"; pro, go ahead, and crastinus, tomorrow. postpone until tomorrow) refers to the postponement or postponement that would be the habit, custom or the action of delaying situations, activities or obligations that should be attended to as soon as possible; also being replaced by others that could be more pleasant, although also more irrelevant, due to laziness and/or fear of facing them and carrying them out.

Seen in this way, the Scarlet O'Hara syndrome would be a volitional behavioral disorder that some people present, and can cause stress, anxiety and/or frustration generated by those pending tasks at times when there is not enough willpower to carry them out and so on. include them.

What happens is that that habit of procrastinating could generate a dependency on a series of external elements such as reading books, shopping, exercising, surfing the internet and social media, binge eating or any other activity that keeps us absorbed by the day-to-day routine as an excuse to avoid some responsibilities and this is when all this could lead to some problems.

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What problems could Scarlet O'Hara syndrome cause?

In today's society it is very common that people have to carry out several tasks at the same time, which could be counterproductive because it could overwhelm people, causing the opposite effect, so that, instead of completing all the pending tasks and increasing their productivity, they end up procrastinating and leaving several of the pending tasks unfinished.

Though procrastination or Scarlet O'Hara syndrome has often been associated with laziness, the truth is that it could be more related to the stress caused by the accumulation of several tasks of simultaneously, due to the anxiety or difficulty experienced on some occasions when handling the emotions.

In some cases, this procrastination could even be due to a dysfunctional perfectionism, which would be characterized by the desire to continually achieve successful results in all the tasks they must carry out and without making any mistakes.

In addition, people with a high degree of dysfunctional perfectionism have a series of characteristics such as feeling saturated, some beliefs irrational, fear of failure and a high degree of intolerance to uncertainty, which can lead to procrastination or postponement of several chores.

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The possible relationship between Scarlet O'Hara syndrome and anxiety

Behind procrastination or what is known as the Scarlet O'Hara syndrome there are a number of factors that could go beyond laziness, laziness or poor time management as we have already been able to look. Among all these factors we should highlight the difficulty in managing our emotions, insecurity, dysfunctional perfectionism and, behind all this, anxiety; and it is that Increasingly, relationships have been found between procrastination and anxiety within the field of psychology.

While it is true that all of us on some occasions could delay a task that has a delivery date, being totally normal and even reasonable, this situation can become problematic when the habit of postponing the chores.

When procrastination or postponement becomes a habit is when we could be talking about the Scarlet O'Hara syndrome and here we would find a close relationship with certain difficulties when it comes to managing emotions and, therefore, with the anxiety. And it is that normally what is behind procrastination and that generates certain problems for us is a high self-demand and a dysfunctional perfectionism, caused by the strong need to obtain successful results at all times and without committing failures.

For all this, the fear of not lowering the bar as high as we have set ourselves is what stresses us, causes us anguish and could end up causing the development of anxiety and, at the moment when the first symptoms of anxiety begin (eg. Ex-, nervousness, agitation, feeling tired or weak, feeling of imminent danger, etc.) everything could change. Our spirits are declining, our motivation and our willpower are diminished, so our mind will try to find other more rewarding tasks in the short term to get away from the problem and from that need that we previously had to be highly effective.

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Strategies to combat procrastination or Scarlet O'Hara syndrome

Faced with Scarlet O'Hara syndrome or procrastination there are some strategies that could help, highlighting that in similar situations that could overwhelm us, perhaps the most sensible thing would be to seek help professional. In the meantime, let's briefly discuss those strategies to get some ideas to start getting out of trouble. a situation that could be quite distressing and disabling.

In the first place, we must stop anticipating the results of our tasks, since it is something that is beyond our control and depends on of various factors, since in this type of case it is quite common for tasks to be postponed for fear that they will not go as planned. expected. These negative predictions can only serve to worsen one's own performance and cause the completion of tasks to be prolonged.

In this sense, it would also be important to reduce expectations, since it is counterproductive to seek perfection. Instead, it might be more useful to do things in a healthier way, according to one's abilities and without pressure. Therefore, it is important to remain calm at all times, and for this it could be useful to carry out some relaxation exercises before carrying out the pending tasks. It might also be advisable to carry out tasks one at a time, rather than trying to do several at once.

Another obstacle that we can find when carrying out our tasks and finishing our projects is fear and insecurities. Given this, we should be determined and try to get going as soon as possible, since it is through activation and movement that inspiration and motivation can arise. Otherwise, if we wait for inspiration and motivation to come sooner, we are more likely to become paralyzed and find it harder to get going.

In addition, when it comes to combating Scarlet O'Hara syndrome or procrastination, there are a series of self-monitoring steps that might be helpful:

• Start by finding a workplace where distractions are few and there are no interruptions.
• Start with a list of tasks that should be done and sort them by importance and due date.
• Make a work schedule where we start with the shortest to progress little by little.
• Structure all tasks and carry them out through small steps and set realistic deadlines.
• Change expectations and find helpful thinking strategies to combat negative thoughts.
• Plan and/or think about some rewards that we will receive when we meet our goals.