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Ask HN: Did anyone else lose their marbles?

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21–30 of 361 posts

Re: Ask HN: Did anyone else lose their marbles?

#21
Mental health is a serious issue. The past few years I have been putting family and work before my own care and it caught up to me. 10xing is great, but if you have a mental condition the slightest thing can really set you back if you don't put your own health first. I am taking some time away from computer next few weeks last minute. Management seems fine with it and is offering any help they can. Though I didn't lose my marbles 100% slipping into depression is very real and can be scary. Don't hesitate to go to the ER or any other service if you need it. Take care of yourself.

Re: Ask HN: Did anyone else lose their marbles?

#25
Yes in my case it was caused by ideas from a shitty self help book that i was trying out whilst a politcal battle was going on at work. Need to trace the origins which can only be done by talking to trusted people, ie family and probably not friends (which i got burnt by). Getting proffessional help was also not useful at all as they cared more about managing symptoms with meds rather than tracing the root cause.

Re: Ask HN: Did anyone else lose their marbles?

#28
Sorry that happened to you. It sounds scary, but you sound like you're doing much better. I hope you are.

In the interest of openly sharing, I've had inklings of psychosis in the past while also being an absolute top performer at work. It's damaged my relationships, but never to the point of a psychotic break. A combination of getting way too focused on work for months/years, burning out, stopping exercising to try and "claw back time" for more work, way too much caffeine to push further, weed to chill and push creativity, and exploring various dosages of modafinil/adderall without a prescription. Turns out that's not something you can do to your brain for all too long, but it was also "easy" to get back to my old self once I stopped pretending I was somehow special and could cheat the system and instead focused on being as healthy of a human as I could muster. My direct boss at work and I have a very strong relationship and so he had awareness of where I was at, but nobody else.

Again, not trying to steal any limelight. Your scenario sounds more extreme and you have my deepest condolences. You're not completely alone in fighting demons.

Re: Ask HN: Did anyone else lose their marbles?

#29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are describing a psychotic episode.

Is it a common metaphor?

The description is not a metaphor. “Lost my marbles” is a common one for psychosis, dementia and the like, though.
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