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Overreaction
1 min read · 237 words
An overreaction is the system producing a response proportionate to the accumulated load rather than to the current stimulus.
The event that triggered the response — the dropped cup, the minor criticism, the small inconvenience — didn’t warrant the intensity the system produced. The system produced it anyway because the response isn’t just about the trigger. It’s about the trigger PLUS everything the system has been carrying that hasn’t been processed.
The Irritation entry covered the dropped threshold. Overreaction is the acute version: the system releases a batch of accumulated signal at the first available trigger. The anger that was held about the job fires at the partner. The stress that was carried for weeks discharges at the small inconvenience. The grief that was suppressed surfaces as rage at a stranger.
The trigger is the permission slip, not the cause. The system was loaded. The trigger opened the valve.
From the chair, the diagnostic is retrospective: after the intensity has passed, the question is not why did I react so strongly to that? (the trigger) but what was I already carrying? (the load). The overreaction identified the accumulation. The Holding entry’s inventory applies: what has the system been carrying that it hasn’t discharged or processed?
Address the load. The triggers will always exist. The response is proportionate to what’s already in the system.