There is an interesting commonality to some Goldilocks questions. At first glance, it seems that the two extremes are far apart from each other, and so have the least in common with other. However, upon closer examination of people's behavior, it seems that people have a tendency to jump between the two extremes, "overcompensating" or "fishtailing", and find it difficult to reach a happy medium. In some cases, deeper examination of the issue may reveal that the two extremes actually share some philosophical similarities.
| Overeating / undereating | This one is perhaps the clearest. Both are very unhealthy, and both can become compulsive behaviors. |
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| Sex and love addiction | Sex-n-love addicts talk about sexual and romantic anorexia, parallelling eating disorders.
Within sex-and-love-addiction support groups, it's believed that the thing that underlies both is a fear of intimacy. Fear of intimacy causes someone with compulsive sexual behavior to act out, to seek external things that help them cover up the fact that they're afraid of intimacy. Anorexics act inwards, constantly telling themselves to avoid situations where intimacy could possibly occur. In a few cases, there are individuals who oscillate between excessive-relationship-seeking and relationship-avoidance. |
| ADD & OCD-like behavior | Although they are not the same issue, there are some similarities. Someone with ADHD gets distracted too often. They compensate for this by practicing focusing on one thing for longer than they're usually able to. However, this same impulse, if taken too far, means that they can end up focusing on one thing too much.
For ADHD patients, the medical community more accurately describes this as hyperfocus. But hyperfocus and OCD are sometimes thought to be similar. ALSO — as I suspected — ADHD and addiction generally are related — they're both issues with impulse control. |