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So I finally sorted out what happened to my brain

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Re: So I finally sorted out what happened to my brain

#131

Post by fallingfrog »

cercatrova wrote: post #33
havernator wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Middle aged here. Almost, but not quite, no autobiographical memory. Been that way since I was really young. So that’s fun. Often I remember that something happened. Order gets wonky, even a week back. Sometimes I can kinda remember an image or a snippet, but not reliably. I gather most people hold on to a lot more than that. Fine with facts and such. Never a problem in school. I do have trouble remembering the names…

Can you visualize things in your mind as if they were physically in front of you? People with aphantasia cannot and they often can't remember visual events from the past as a result. Perhaps you have it too.

I have terrible autobiographical memory- everything is out of order and I don’t know what happened last year or ten years ago. But at the same time I think mostly in images and visuals. If I want a fork the image of a shiny fork in my hand will flash in my mind but then sometimes I can’t think of the word for it and I’ll just say, I need the um, the ah, the thing, what is it called... while picturing it very clearly in my minds eye.

Re: So I finally sorted out what happened to my brain

#132

Post by misterremote »

Tycho wrote: post #116
misterremote wrote: post #64

I don't know about the glucose ... ... but burning out can really destroy your life. I know it destroyed mine. It took me years to recover, and I'm still not 100%. I started working for an early stage startup right after school when I was 19yo. I didn't sleep. I didn't eat properly. Our team was small. Responsibilities super high. And I burned out. Oh, I have so many stories from this time... like when I hadn't slept…

still not 100% in what way? physical impairment? ambition? appetite for work? damaged relationships? personality? ability to socialise?

For a while, I wasn't even able to work properly. And I started having thoughts like, "maybe I will never recover and be able to support my family." It was scary.

I physically didn't have the necessary energy. I was exhausted all the time. I could code for an hour max, and then I just couldn't anymore. But this improved a lot over a couple of years.

But today: my physical body hasn't fully recovered from the sleepless nights, wrong sitting positions, etc. Lower back, neck, for example. I know these can be improved through exercise, and I do it more and more.

Re: So I finally sorted out what happened to my brain

#133

Post by nchi3 »

iovrthoughtthis wrote: post #120
nchi3 wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, emotion is all chemicals and signals in your brain, but there's still a quite clear distinction to what the difference between physiological and psychological is.

it’s not so clear cut, instead it’s very interlinked. what you think effects your body, what you do effects your mind. e.g. worrying will cause your heart rate to increase ad your breathing to quicken, breathing slowly will reduce your heart rate, a lower heart rate will reduce your sense of anxiety. your body is a sensor, your mind is the computer. emotions are like the ships diagnostic warnings from star trek. edit…

I agree that it's all very interlinked, but that doesn't mean there's no distinction. Changing your way of thinking is purely psychological, whereas changing what you eat is both.

> id add that this is why “mastering your emotions” using the control sense of mastering, doesn’t make sense.

I'm not sure I understand what you mean here, it seems to contradict what you said in the earlier sentence? For example, if you have migraines due to stress, and you learn to control your emotions, you could reduce migraines. Breathing slowly is one way to do so, but there's also a lot of more or less purely psychological ways of doing it (e.g. CBT).

Re: So I finally sorted out what happened to my brain

#134

Post by getlawgdon »

danwills wrote: post #81
gre wrote: post #25

Start a blog already.

Totally agree, why do people keep using the 'tweet' format for long stories that obviously do not fit? The reading experience is not good at all. Not trying to be negative am genuinely interested in the reasons.

because that's where their readership is and that's where they're likely to be discovered by more readers? I dont like the format but I don't think the 'why' is a mystery at all.

Re: So I finally sorted out what happened to my brain

#135

Post by aetherspawn »

alexpetralia wrote: post #128
aetherspawn wrote: post #9

I have had something similar to this (heavy fog and inability to continue creative work) and I use coffee, bulk vitamins and regular walks with music to work through it. I also started eating more fresh food and less frozen food, even if it meant eating-out fresh, because it was much worse when I was reheating a lot of tasteless frozen food. But no matter how hard I try, I have focused my career into an area that req…

I wonder if you may have aphantasia, and I also wonder if it may be more common (selected for even) amongst engineers. If I say: "imagine a red triangle", can you do it easily? Is it red? Does it visually exist in front of you? I have asked many people this, and many people say it is laughably easy. This tells me it is "normal". I can't do this. I also have a terrible episodic memory. But my semantic memory is fantas…

I can not really imagine a whole object at once, I can only easily imagine the features/edges individually, although I know that they form a triangle.

Re: So I finally sorted out what happened to my brain

#136

Post by dkersten »

misterremote wrote: post #64

I don't know about the glucose ... ... but burning out can really destroy your life. I know it destroyed mine. It took me years to recover, and I'm still not 100%. I started working for an early stage startup right after school when I was 19yo. I didn't sleep. I didn't eat properly. Our team was small. Responsibilities super high. And I burned out. Oh, I have so many stories from this time... like when I hadn't slept…

Oof yeah this resonates with me too. I did two failed startups back to back a number of years ago and had a lot of health issues after that which I’m sure were due to the stress and burnout.

And... I’m actually sitting on a hospital bed this very moment because of high blood pressure and some other symptoms that are probably caused by the blood pressure, but they want to do some more tests to be sure.

Re: So I finally sorted out what happened to my brain

#137

Post by readflaggedcomm »

beepxyl wrote: post #29
sxp wrote: post #10

> I "depleted my brain of dopamine and glucose" causing "Functional Neurological Disorder" (FND - DSM-5 code 300.11) Is this a real thing? I can't find any evidence of Google about this and the author didn't link any sources. "300.11" is pretty vague and seems to refer to a problem that doesn't match any other criteria. I can't find any reference to it being caused by glucose or dopamine levels. Edit: https://twitter…

I find it all very doubtful. Sounds more like someone not wanting to admit to burn-out in order to protect their career.

As he said, his healthcare is shit, so he used his test data to diagnose himself.

Re: So I finally sorted out what happened to my brain

#138

Post by varjag »

bladegash wrote: post #130
varjag wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One can argue about compounding factors, but working too hard is always there in burnout cases.

I disagree and I do not see why it would not be possible to become burned out when your workload is too low-pressure. Some people thrive under such conditions and languish under others. However, some issues unrelated to working too hard are far more universal, such as feelings of being unfairly treated, lack of autonomy, feeling trapped or stuck in a position due to other responsibilities, etc.

I think there is an implication in the name: to burn out you have to burn in the first place. My personal experience, that of some colleagues and multiple accounts of other people I've read over the years suggest that.

There are certainly other ingredients than just overwork (despair, low project morale, lack of stewardship, blame culture) that make people fizzle out. But working too much is there in all accounts.

Re: So I finally sorted out what happened to my brain

#139

Post by justinclift »

aetherspawn wrote: post #135
alexpetralia wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if you may have aphantasia, and I also wonder if it may be more common (selected for even) amongst engineers. If I say: "imagine a red triangle", can you do it easily? Is it red? Does it visually exist in front of you? I have asked many people this, and many people say it is laughably easy. This tells me it is "normal". I can't do this. I also have a terrible episodic memory. But my semantic memory is fantas…

I can not really imagine a whole object at once, I can only easily imagine the features/edges individually, although I know that they form a triangle.

Not sure if it's a useful data point, but my ability to construct things in my head improved dramatically after I'd been messing around with CAD for a few months.

My guess is it just got my brain to improve it's ability with that stuff, and the side effects helped in other areas (like this) too. :)

Re: So I finally sorted out what happened to my brain

#140

Post by tluyben2 »

fho wrote: post #93
tluyben2 wrote: post #72

Same exact symptoms (the bass guitar string he heard is a thing that gave me ptsd like symptoms/crippling anxiety for a long time after) I had from a TIA when I was overworked. He waited getting a scan so they could've missed it later; my office was next to the hospital: nothing showed on the CT one hour after but on the RMI a couple of hours after they found a tiny lesion in one of the regions involved in forming sp…

Is that "bass guitar string" thing common? I had it twice, both times in a hot and cramped train and shrugged it up to "heat stroke".

Not sure, but I had 'lighter versions' of that sound before getting a migraine after this(never had migraines before the tia): those episodes immediately caused extreme anxiety, as in: it is happening again, while I knew it was not because I had no speech issues or foggy brain, just an aura floating in front of my eyes. This is a long time ago and the way of getting rid of all of this was getting rid of and learning to cope with stress. Now I work more hours and take on far more responsibility than I did at the time but I do not feel any stress, at all. Never had any migraines or other symptoms I used to have anymore. For people who do not know what it is: chronic stress is living hell and dangerous. Better recognize it in time so you do not lose years of your life.
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