When does too much of a good thing turn into abuse? When does that abuse become harmful?
Over-presumption on my part? Too much of a good thing?
But insofar as any domain I care to observe, empirical evidence corroborates.
Too much water consumption is said to render bodily ill. Yet to encounter such a case, I suspect the amount far surpasses what most of us intake.
I’m no athlete, yet consume between three to four liters per day without any perceivable consequence. Save for that inconvenience of being ever enslaved to the lavatory. That one is a bummer.
Concerning most humans, I would sooner fear insufficient hydration. I’ve met enough cases that drink less water through the day than I before 9AM.
Now too much of most nutritional elements probably renders some variation of harm.
As does too much of most physical stressors that benefit in measured quantities. Hormetic stressors is the term, and there’s a point in hormesis where continual increase can break us. Let’s call this Hormetic overdose.
Too much oxygen, in likelihood, renders harm. Except our body performs an exceptional duty of regulating that intake. Save for artificial means, I cannot fathom of the means to overinhale.
But of greater interest is the philosophical question: where does too much of a good thing, of a pleasureful thing, of an indulgence, become a malice? Where is one case of such abuse preferable to another?
Alas, across most mechanisms not strictly vital for our subsistence, contrary to the case of oxygen intake, the body is not the commanding officer. Our capricious, villainous mind takes the reigns.
The Mind, unless preempted, is abysmal at regulating abuse under too much of a pleasure. Better be skeptical of that conniving creature.
I abuse too much reading: too much philosophy, too much poetry, too much antiquity, having noticed certain traces of side-effects:
Neither should I think it good, when, by reason of a solitary and melancholic complexion, he is discovered to be overmuch addicted to his book, to nourish that humour in him; for that renders him unfit for civil conversation, and diverts him from better employments. [Montaigne]
All the better if I could call this form of learning judicious. Alas, the case is far from universal: too much weight balanced on the humble planks.
Intuition, a strong arbitrator in these matters, suggests that these ultimate ten percent produced little in the respective stock of discovery, creativity or flow.
I abuse language, recklessly appealing to antiquated English register. Unless I override control, this will lead to no formidable end.
With Russian, I overload and occasionally fabricate words, although this communication otherwise bears a vernacular semblance. Were I to speak Latin, it would likely infest my whole speech. Hormetic overdose.
I’m dangerously impressionable with language:
That eloquence prejudices the subject it would advance, that [otherwise] wholly attracts us to itself. [Montaigne]
Or:
And as in our outward habit, ‘tis a ridiculous effeminacy to distinguish ourselves by a particular and unusual garb or fashion; so in language, to study new phrases, and to affect words that are not of current use, proceeds from a puerile and scholastic ambition. [Montaigne]
If only I were to heed ancient guidance.
Too much caffeine begins to irritate my nervous system, something I’m asserting at this very instant.
Music over too extended a period desensitizes me from the appreciation I might otherwise derive. This I’m also perceiving real time, having spent too much of the day in the delight of Bach’s Harpsichord Concertos or the organ compositions.
Too long of continuous writing causes ideas to saturate. Naturally, that period can vary from fifteen minutes (enough for a limerick) to ten hours or more across individuals.
There are pleasantries that cease to render benefit from a point conceivably close to nil. I hear proclaimed that the body requires a certain amount of sugar: this usually from individuals of dangerously high level of consumption.
As far as I know, the body doesn’t even require carbohydrates. Although the polarity can raise battlefields. But be it that I’m fatally misled, I don’t hear of too much insufficient sugar diagnosis; only the contrary.
So far I’m fortunate to avoid Hormetic overdose across the ever-devouring mobile communication, television, media and video games. No, not fortunate. Nor does it stem from discipline. Rather, I’ve come to view these mediums with a visceral sort of derision.
In fact, I find of far greater ease to eliminate such a liability entirely, rather than maintain within some measure of healthy dosage. This coping mechanism is not unheard of, and not strictly among recovering raging alcoholics.
Concerning the various vice plaguing our population, I know of few people of the fortitude to adequately mitigate. I suspect the terms everyone and people, as we tend to hear, have ceased to apply to this group.
Questions, comments? Connect.