Earlier quoted context omitted.
But why? There are plenty of good companies that have work life balance. Why not move to one of them?
I'm also curious!
Self employed and making 8x more tha my peers. I keep saying i'll stop it next year for 8 years.
So I finally sorted out what happened to my brain
251–260 of 303 posts
Re: So I finally sorted out what happened to my brain
#252Saying it wasn't burnout in the usual sense, and instead was an actual physical issue ... Well, that's just medieval. Good story though.
What led him to those physical issues is however psychological. People need a work-life balance. No matter how interesting or awesome your job is. He unfortunately is still not looking inward for the actual cause of his problems. He just switched jobs to one less prone to overwork.
Yes, that's what I got from the article: There's no difference from mental / physical processes, both are carb-driven molecular machines that can break.
Re: So I finally sorted out what happened to my brain
#253Earlier quoted context omitted.
People usually get "hangry" / feeling like they're going to die like a diabetic does before entering a coma if their glucose actually crashes. My dad was an adult-onset type-1 from exposure to Agent Orange who ended-up in the hospital more than once from either insulin misadministration or glucose-management issues. They might've actually had something like a nervous breakdown or a TIA. PSA: Don't self-diagnose, esp.…
It isn't my intention to doubt Tinker, only to continue discourse here, but I was going to say something similar. I have reactive hypoglycemia and it is very, very obvious when my blood sugars are too low - it really is an absolutely horrible thing. At first I start to feel a little bit "stupid", like my brain isn't functioning properly, and is working in slow motion. Talking is more difficult. Next I start to feel a…
T1D here, and you explained the experience of hypoglycemia very well. This is very close to what I get as well.
> Then comes an incredible desire to eat sweet things - once you start eating, it can actually be difficult to stop!
This sucks a lot with diabetes. The survival mechanism kicks in and tells you "eat something, anything, everything", which can subsequently cause your blood sugar to skyrocket, which you then have to correct with more insulin...it can send you on a blood sugar roller coaster than can ruin your entire day. Diabetes sucks.
Re: So I finally sorted out what happened to my brain
#254The conclusion that a glucose deficiency was causative to this episode is rather naive and far-fetched.
This was either a severe migraine, a manic episode that possibly turned into a psychosis or a stroke.
Episodic Migraines and strokes can both lead to loss of words and memory as well as auditory hallucinations (guitar string sound in the center of his brain) and could explain the other symptoms he describes.
It could also be a mix of the above.
Re: So I finally sorted out what happened to my brain
#255This reads out exactly how a manic or hypomanic person would experience things and rationalize past events and feelings. The idea that it has to be something complex and in a sense grandiose compared to "just being burned out" is often a very telling sign. Perhaps it's Twitter forcing the format a little, but I could see myself thinking like this during a hypomanic episode. I'm diagnosed with bipolar disorder (type 2…
I don't see it close to resembling any kind of manic episode, and the professionals didn't either.
Sounds like somebody worked too much, started having seizures, and burnt out.
I'm not particularly fond of diagnosing people, I think it's part of reducing "bipolar", either through projection or through normality, which it's not, it's miserable.
But I am particularly fond of having companies be responsible for the health of employees, regardless of what it is, or what they need.
Re: So I finally sorted out what happened to my brain
#256Earlier quoted context omitted.
It could be like you said, but poor choice of word if that is the case. But are you even able to see that someone had a seizure from looking at an EEG after it happened? I was under the impression that it sort of have to be happening while you're measuring. I've been through multiple rounds of both MRI and EEG, mostly to be able to rule out things like brain damage as a precaution. I'm a little fuzzy on the details a…
You're correct. Routine EEG (~30 minutes) can capture active seizures and sometimes patterns that might lead you to think someone is predisposed for a seizure. Often patients need long-term monitoring ("LTM") where they are connected to an EEG for several days to tease out the source of their problems.
Yes that's it. But if op was seizing every time he worked for a few hours it would be fairly easy to capture that on an EEG
Re: So I finally sorted out what happened to my brain
#257Earlier quoted context omitted.
I’ve had similar things happen. It’s not uncommon. It is a physical thing. I’m not sure it’s caused by burning out all the glucose or whatever (as that is short term addressable). Dopamine, that’s possible. In my case, it was caused I think by not getting enough sleep combined with cognitive load, perhaps exasperated by high sodium, and poor nutrition. Stimulants (such as caffeine, but also Ritalin, adderall, etc) if…
Burnout and stress related disorders are very real, but trying to explain them away as purely physical illnesses isn’t accurate, nor does it help with finding a resolution. > It is a physical thing. I’m not sure it’s caused by burning out all the glucose or whatever (as that is short term addressable). Dopamine, that’s possible. No, you don’t simply run out of dopamine, nor can you use it up by thinking too hard. The…
I don't agree with the OP's interpretation of the organic causes, but:
The PTSD seems quite plausible, as either a consequence of the original phenomenon or, yes, even a factor in it.
For an organic component, if any, I prefer hypoperfusion & ischemia.
I wonder if circulation can be impaired by chronic high levels of stress (and the inflammation caused by stress).
If so, I wonder if this can happen selectively, affecting most strongly the areas used most intensively during stressful times (and receiving the most exposure to high-cortisol blood).
I wonder if narcolepsy and/or something like this may work to protect the brain (from whatever mechanisms) during periods of high stress.
If ketogenic diet helps with narcolepsy, I wonder if one mechanism is that burning glucose is a source of oxidative stress...
Re: So I finally sorted out what happened to my brain
#258Earlier quoted context omitted.
Had very similar symptoms as post. Was getting constant tia symptoms. 3 years of doctors visits later. Oh you have a genetic disposition for clotting. (Factor 5) Started on blood thinners and the TIA symptoms stopped in a few days, brain fog lifted. Plus lots other symptoms. I had been having minor strokes constantly, just not large enough to show up on MRI.
My old-aunt had this. She would have small ones a lot even with blood thinners.
If I miss 1 days doses I start getting visual artifacts. Recovery is about a day.
2-3 days and I start to lose feeling one side and can no longer write. Recovery is usually 1-6 weeks.
I had more leeway before catching covid.
Older ones had higher chance of not being effective.
Re: So I finally sorted out what happened to my brain
#259Earlier quoted context omitted.
It sounds like this was the diagnosis he was given. I have done extended water fasts for multiple days and often eat keto ( Nevertheless, who knows what combination of medical peculiarities might be involved, so I guess it cannot be ruled out. My prior assumption would still be that a case of burnout/exhaustion, or micro stroke seems like a more probable explanation. He writes > talking to other hackers & infosec fol…
> It sounds like this was the diagnosis he was given. Not quite. He cites the specific diagnosis the doctor gave him and the associated DSM-5 code, but his extrapolation about dopamine and glucose is not part of that diagnosis. It’s not actually physically possible as he describes it. This is a decent overview of the exact diagnosis he cites: https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/conversion-di... In short: I…
ah ok, really confusing in the twitter thread but I guess it fits that the odd bits are his interpretation.
Re: So I finally sorted out what happened to my brain
#260Earlier quoted context omitted.
Do you have any sort of citation for this? I’m not trying to be snarky, I’d really like to read more. My understanding of the med lit is that bipolar and epilepsy aren’t particularly associated, and pure BD in particular is a rarity - when epileptic patients were assessed for BD symptoms, they were mostly only found in the confusional states pre- and post-seizure, which isn’t BD at all. At least in my hospital, the m…
Maybe serotonin syndrome? That causes seizure like stuff and mania.
Serotonin syndrome is due to an excess of serotonin almost exclusively due to serotonin agonists. Seizure is pretty rare - it produces stuff that looks like seizure (myoclonus, tremor, delirium), but actual seizure is only seen in SS so severe that it’s usually fatal.