Beech

What it feels like

You notice everything. The apostrophe in the wrong place, the chewing, the person who says basically at the start of every sentence, the colleague who replies to all. Each one is small and each one goes through you like a wire. You do not usually say anything, which means it accumulates, and you can spend a whole afternoon quietly annoyed by things nobody else registered. There is real perception behind it, you genuinely do see what others miss. The cost is that the noticing has become automatic and unkind, and the world starts to feel like it is full of people doing things wrong.

Signs you might need it

• Small habits in other people irritate you out of proportion
• You correct things, out loud or in your head
• You find yourself judging strangers on very little
• Noises like chewing or tapping genuinely get to you
• You are critical of others and know it is not fair
• You feel tense and clenched about things that do not matter

What it helps with

The eye for detail stays and the irritation drains out of it. People describe still noticing everything while it stops mattering so much, which is a considerable relief to live with.

Not to be confused with

Impatiens, which is irritated by slowness rather than by faults. Vine wants control rather than correctness, and Rock Water points the same strictness at itself instead of at everyone else.