When too much of a good thing turns bad; how the dose makes the poison
I’ve been playing video games since roughly eight years old and have a lot of video game related memories.
I got an original Nintendo for Christmas and remember not wanting to leave the house because I was so enamored with Mario. Later I would ride my bike with friends for a few miles to the video rental store to get some games for the weekend.
I remember the elation when I got the Nintendo 64 for Christmas, followed shortly thereafter by surprise and frustration when I discovered the newfangled RCA connections weren’t compatible with our TV! I remember the PS2 that allowed me to watch my first DVDs. I remember when my oldest son was a baby and accidentally bought me a game by playing with the controller with the TV off.
I played video games through childhood, adolescence, college, and having three kids. Video games were a feature of my life for decades until Christmas 2021 when I essentially quit them, cold turkey.
At the end of 2021 I had done a year end reflection exercise. I went through photos from the year. I answered question prompts. I thought through my goals for the future.
I don’t remember when it hit me exactly, but I do remember a thought appearing in my head that said, “Wait, video games didn’t matter.”
When I sat with that thought I realized there was some merit to it. I had played dozens and dozens of games that year. I listened to video game podcasts. I read video game news.
Surprisingly, absolutely nothing about video games stuck out to me during the end of year reflection. They also weren’t helping me achieve my goals.
So, I stopped.
I still have a positive association with games, and my kids still play them. Periodically I’ll play something with them, but it’s no longer is a central part of my life.
This represents the idea that “the dose makes the poison.” In small amounts, many things are harmless. But there’s a point at which that harmless thing hits a level that turns it into something that’s no longer good for you.
While “poison” is a little harsh in this anecdote, I realized that video games had gone beyond that healthy threshold in my life and I wanted to bring the level down.
The idea that the dose makes the poison dates back to at least Paracelsus, our Swiss friend from the 1500s (you may remember that name from the Three Things in this newsletter). He said:
“All things are poison, and nothing is without poison; the dosage alone makes it so a thing is not a poison.”
Paracelsus was I’m sure a brilliant man, but that language is a little hard for modern folks to parse. Thankfully we have the shorthand version 🙂
When he said that “all things are poison,” he’s getting at the fact that just about anything can harm you at a high enough level.
Just a few examples are below:
🥃 Alcohol - Most people can tolerate a sip or a full drink. Have several and you may be in for a rough morning. Go even further and you could die from consuming too much.
💧 Water - You need water to live, but if you consume too much you may get water intoxication and could die. (speaking of video games, you may remember the tragic story of the 28 year old woman who died from this trying to win her kids a Nintendo Wii)
🥕 Carrots - Yes, too many carrots can be harmful. They can cause carotenosis, which causes your skin to turn orange. It can take months for it to return to a normal color!
The above list, and things like it, are pretty straightforward. These are physical things that you can choose to put in your body. There are also rules that can be put in place to establish what levels are acceptable and what levels are harmful.
In fact, this is the practice behind things like acceptable toxins in our water supply. It may be gross to think about mercury and other substances in our water, but it’s a reality. In theory our body can process out toxins at these levels.
Where things get really interesting is where there’s no hard and fast rule. There are areas of life - like video games were for me - where the levels are different for different people, at different stages of life, and are difficult to define and measure. A few examples are:
🏋️ Exercise - Working out is important for health and longevity, but if you overdo it your body can’t recover and you may suffer increased injuries, fatigue, or other health issues.
📱 Social Media - A little bit may be good to connect with friends and family, but there are many studies out there showing the negative effects it can have on your mental health.
👨💻 Work - Work can provide meaning and put food on the table, but if you’re working into the evening and on the weekends, you’re likely harming other aspects of your life.
While the above three examples are probably common among most people, each of us have different behaviors, hobbies, and interests. It is important to understand this concept and its application so that you can apply these to your personal circumstances and live the life you want. To do so, you can use awareness, intentionality, and balance to navigate a discussion for yourself.
Awareness - The first step is to bring awareness into your life. Humans do a lot on autopilot, so you’ll have to bring some things to the foreground to interrogate them. Jennifer Garvey Berger has a framing I like in her book, Changing on the Job, called getting it on the table:
“Just putting something on the table doesn’t mean that you’ll understand or be able to deal with it differently. Instead, it’s important to walk around the table, to take a variety of perspectives on the issue and to ask a variety of questions about it.”
Intentionality - Once you’re aware of something you’ll need to set an intention. Are you operating at a safe level or has it gone up into an unhealthy zone?
Balance - Life is balance. It ebbs and flows. You’ll have to monitor how your life is or isn’t in balance, and what adjustments need to be made. It’s not a one-time effort because you change, your environment changes, and your goals change.
Together these tools of awareness, intentionality, and balance are a good approach to making adjustments that ensure nothing in your life is hitting
Since we’re closing in on the end of the calendar year - and the two year anniversary of the reflection that prompted me to stop playing video games - it’s a good a time as any to get a head start on your own reflection.
My first suggestion is to be clear on the person you want to be and the life you want to lead. Reflect on whether your habits and choices are supporting you in becoming that person and living that life.
Bring things to a level of conscious awareness and reflect on whether it’s something that exists in too high a dose, or is still at a good level. If it’s too high, take steps to dial it back a notch.
Importantly, these don’t have to be huge life-altering reflections. Maybe you’ve got too much of one color in your wardrobe and you want to make room for other colors. Maybe you realize you’re talking too much in meetings and want to make space for other voices. Inversely, maybe the ‘quiet’ is the poison and you need to speak more.
The magnitude of the idea or the level of change is not important. It’s the act of bringing things to conscious awareness, being intentional about the person you want to be, and making incremental changes so that you’re not accidentally “poisoning” yourself.
Have fun with this, and let me know whether a reflection has prompted you to make any adjustments. I’d love to hear your story!
Kevin 🤗