Ask HN: Did anyone else lose their marbles? • Hacker News Board

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

#81

Post by easeout » Mon, Feb 06, 2023, 9:14 AM UTC

mach1ne wrote: post #64

easeout wrote: post #50

(CW OCD) Twice in my life I've become helplessly obsessed with a given topic to the point that nearly everything I saw, heard, or thought about would build a new association back to the topic, forming a feedback loop. The first time it lasted a year. No one could tell because I was just acting like a weird teenager to them, but it was hugely debilitating. I couldn't get off the ride. The second time, maybe fifteen ye…

Interesting. What condition was this? Its psychology intrigues me.

Here it is. To me it's like a demon you can beat by knowing its name. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limerence

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

#82

Post by raspberry1337 » Mon, Feb 06, 2023, 9:14 AM UTC

spaceman_2020 wrote: post #77

I’ve had two breakdowns. The first was out of the blue and had no real immediate cause. It left me with a perennial feeling of anxiety, paranoia and depression that lasted almost 8 years. It was only fixed with medication - a 3 month course of SSRIs that miraculously brought my back to my old self almost immediately. The second breakdown was precipitated by medication - withdrawals from Gabapentin, a medication presc…

[flagged]

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

#83

Post by goodpoint » Mon, Feb 06, 2023, 9:15 AM UTC

AA-BA-94-2A-56 wrote: post #2

My mother went through a psychotic attack. I think she would have kept it secret, if not for the police finding and sectioning her. Roughly 3% of people in the U.S. are reported to experience psychosis at some point in their lives. Those are only the ones that report it.

The US is incredibly brutal and ineffective in handling psychotic episodes when the police gets involved.

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

#84

Post by camgunz » Mon, Feb 06, 2023, 9:17 AM UTC

easymodex wrote: post #51

My wife went through psychosis in december for the first time and is still recovering. As you can imagine it has been a rough few months and I really want to know, in your experience, do you go back to normal afterwards? How long does it take? She is on antipsychotics and is way out of the acute phase, but she still has unusual behaviour like last week she covered up the TV with a towel and says she doesn't like phon…

I'm not a doctor but, that sounds like schizophrenia to me. It's treatable, but with some downsides:

- takes a little while to get the drug regimen right

- side effects aren't wonderful (twitching is the main bummer)

Maybe someone with more direct knowledge can chime in (or, yeah maybe this isn't schizophrenia), but this is my understanding.

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

#85

Post by tarsinge » Mon, Feb 06, 2023, 9:17 AM UTC

I have not experienced it myself but I have seen a relative having an episode like that, it was quite scary for me but like you that person is functional and back now.

Personally I make quite vivid dreams that make me contemplate how fine is the line of between mind and reality when I wake up. It seems like a subtle mental process and I can totally imagine how it could fail with fragilities and pressure.

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

#86

Post by fsckboy » Mon, Feb 06, 2023, 9:18 AM UTC

raffraffraff wrote: post #58

college_physics wrote: post #38

> I’ll never forgive myself This I don't quite get. Why are you blaming yourself for what ex-post seems to have been a medical condition? Do you feel you somehow caused it or that it was within your powers to handle it better? In any case its in the past. What is important is to understand causes to prevent possible recurrence, or manage it better if its unavoidable

Not OP, but perhaps the regret is about putting too much pressure on themselves, not the aftermath. We owe it to our loved ones as much as to ourselves to keep a healthy balance in the things we do.

but that's like saying we owe it to our loved ones to never get sick. Mental illness is illness, it's not something you are doing to yourself.

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

#87

Post by conductr » Mon, Feb 06, 2023, 9:19 AM UTC

INTPenis wrote: post #67

I've just become completely lethargic lately. And there's some sort of mental block stopping me from working. It's kinda insane because I can work on other stuff, but as soon as there's a simple task for my employer my mind just wanders off. And when I really try to focus I just go blank in my head. Can't explain shit. I'm trying to slowly get back on the pony just because I'm ashamed of all the salary I've collected…

I've had this happen more often than burnout. For me, it's simple lack of engagement. Even if you never gave much, when you really stop giving a shit, it becomes difficult to give even a bare minimum. It's usually coupled with a feeling that anything else you do with your time is more important than work. Like anything. I recall skipping important meetings to go outside and pick up dog poo from the lawn. Also for me, it's usually solved by finding a new job/challenge.

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

#88

Post by ggm » Mon, Feb 06, 2023, 9:20 AM UTC

marttt wrote: post #65

ggm wrote: post #56

Normalising talking about it, is good. This needs to be something people can say, water cooler or no. I had two episodes like this 40+ years ago. I sought mental health advice and have never regretted it. In my own situation CBT worked fine so I have a strong bias toward it, as does my continuing mental health professional. Non-CBT therapy especially, but really any mental health treatment should be something you dis…

Interesting to hear from someone with psychotherapy experience from 40+ years ago. I wonder how much the core of professional mental help has changed over that many decades. There must have been a lot of stigma surrounding it back in those days; then again, since the "industry" must have been smaller, too, it was probably somewhat easier to find a really good therapist? Just thinking out loud out of curiosity -- as a…

Actually CBT isn't much different now from then. It's a continuing model. Drug treatment is radically different. Views on ECT have swung full circle. To some extent the stigma has mellowed, it was always a bit edgy to state you were seeking or receiving help. But that said, problems like bulimia and anxiety were common at university.

Group therapy was offered as an alternative. I have no idea if that's still done. I did not find it attractive.

Because being gay was illegal a lot of gays were in mental health because of both concerns for their mental health and as a pathway out of stigmatisation. (This didn't apply to me but was an observation made to me)

I had mental health treatment in the UK as crisis health management on the NHS and now have a continuing mental health program, in Australia which is a similar model in many ways.

Perhaps the biggest chapter in mental health is the normalisation of PTSD as a real thing, and the re-emergence of MDMA and psychedelics as treatment paths. It always was a thing with mental health professionals but was treated with scepticism in the wider world. Drug addiction mental health is the other thing to look at but I have little experience there.

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

#89

Post by throoowwawaayy » Mon, Feb 06, 2023, 9:20 AM UTC

raffraffraff wrote: post #58

college_physics wrote: post #38

> I’ll never forgive myself This I don't quite get. Why are you blaming yourself for what ex-post seems to have been a medical condition? Do you feel you somehow caused it or that it was within your powers to handle it better? In any case its in the past. What is important is to understand causes to prevent possible recurrence, or manage it better if its unavoidable

Not OP, but perhaps the regret is about putting too much pressure on themselves, not the aftermath. We owe it to our loved ones as much as to ourselves to keep a healthy balance in the things we do.

There is that, but I also don’t feel like “I was crazy” entirely absolves me. I could have made some better decisions for sure.

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

#90

Post by mcv » Mon, Feb 06, 2023, 9:22 AM UTC

raffraffraff wrote: post #54

tetsuhamu wrote: post #46

Yes, I have. No, it's not normal. Yes, it "just happens" to some people, where "some people" are the set of people with pre-existing undiagnosed problems. I got treatment for it. It means you've had an underlying issue. It probably wasn't entirely caused by the work-related stress. After it happens, you know somethin's up, or could be up at any unpredictable time. My goal in therapy and with medication is to manage t…

While what you are saying may be 100% true, I think that basically everybody is capable of being driven over the edge by chronic stress. Everybody has a tipping point. That's normal. Perhaps the difference is what occurs after that point.

I think it's also important to focus on what happens before that point. Learn to identify the chronic stress and change something. Quit jobs that are hurting you.