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In medicine, inflammation is protective…until it becomes chronic. What if I told you over-responsibility in overachievers works the same way?
Chronic Inflammation
Before I explain what I mean, let’s discuss chronic inflammation:
Part 1: Responsibility on Repeat
Chronic inflammation is a long-term immune response that lasts for prolonged periods of time (months/years). As aforementioned, inflammation is typically helpful. But chronic inflammation’s difference from normal, “acute” inflammation lies in its duration, which is caused by the body’s inability to eliminate an irritant (for example, organisms like parasites that can resist the human body’s defenses). Consequently, the body continuously sends out inflammatory cells and substances such as macrophages, lymphocytes, and plasma cells that further produce substances – for example, proteins like cytokines – that slowly damage body tissue through fibrosis (scarring) or granulomas (lesions). Essentially, it is a dangerous condition where the body loses the ability to turn off its response to inflammation—useful, but only for a short time-span—possibly leading to life threatening diseases such as cancer and asthma.
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Now, what exactly is over-responsibility?
An overachiever with over-responsibility takes responsibility for not only their own tasks, but also the tasks and emotional well-being of others. “Inexcessive” responsibility is indeed a trait of leadership, helpful for both the overachiever and the people receiving help. But there is a line/barrier that separates leadership responsibility and over-responsibility: while normal responsibility consists of managing or being accountable for the results one is personally assigned to produce as well as being there for others when they cannot complete their own assignments, a person shifts to over-responsibility when they take ownership for tasks that others are fully capable of doing, behaving as though everything and everyone depends on them. Over-responsibility often originates from one’s derivation of their self-worth from being the person who can “fix everything,” similar to the tendency of overachieving students to define their worth by their academic performance. This state of hyper-alertness often leads directly to burnout, chronic stress, or even medical conditions like heart disease.
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So, how are these two topics similar? You might have already recognized the parallels solely based on their individual descriptions, but here’s the real breakdown.
Just as the immune system response is beneficial until it cannot turn itself off in chronic inflammation, an over-responsible person fails to understand their limits as a fixer or caretaker, unnecessarily taking on the burdens and tasks of others. Likewise, the persistence of inflammatory cells and substances damages healthy cells, leading to internal scarring, analogous to the over-responsible person’s “generosity” that promotes irresponsibility in others while simultaneously inducing stress and burnout in the overachiever. Even more unsettling: both often develop for months or even years until significant damage finally reveals that they are harmful, not helpful.
And just like chronic inflammation, the real consequences of over-responsibility don’t appear all at once: they emerge gradually, as your mental “system” stays overstimulated and hyper for far too long.
To be continued :)
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