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Ask HN: Did anyone else lose their marbles?

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

#171

Post by SturgeonsLaw »

spaceman_2020 wrote: post #126
roarcher wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good on you for following his advice. An ex girlfriend of mine was on that stuff and ran out for a few days due to a fuckup at her pharmacy, and the abrupt stop caused a Grand Mal seizure which landed her in the hospital for two days. No previous history of epilepsy.

I was not told that you couldn't skip a dose or had to take it at the same time everyday. I had some family over and forgot to take my regular dose. Woke up at 5AM in the night with intense numbness all over my body, heart palpitations, an a feeling of dread. Legitimately thought I had a stroke. Now I always wonder when I meet anyone who is acting "weird" or irrationally angry or irritable - how much of their behavio…

This is why I find videos on /r/publicfreakout and the like very hard to watch. It's not a nice feeling to gawk at somebody who is more likely than not under the influence of pharmacology - be it synthetic, or their brain's own neurochemistry.

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

#172

Post by kqr2 »

n4r9 wrote: post #170
tehCorner wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would bet all my money on malarone

Mefloquine seems much more notable for adverse neuropsychological side effects. This was a big worry for me around ten years ago, when travelling to Africa while suffering from an anxiety/panic disorder. I was desperate to avoid taking anything that could make it worse. Doxycycline seemed like the safest choice at the time (and the cheapest!)

I was going to guess that drug too:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/some-us-troops-haunted-by-anti-...

https://www.mayoclinic.org/drugs-supplements/mefloquine-oral...

I thought malarone was safer...

https://www.drugs.com/sfx/malarone-side-effects.html

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

#173

Post by idiocrat »

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…

Please tell me if you find a cure or a way out.

I have tried several types of supplements and could fix some of long-lasting energy problems.

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

#174

Post by tonnydourado »

I wouldn't call it loosing my marbles, but I was in pretty bad shape between the second half of 2020 and pretty much the whole of 2021.

The isolation from the pandemic, combined with being a recent immigrant in a country whose language I didn't speak, and seasonal depression from shorter days and colder weather than I had ever experienced before, hit me like a ton of bricks.

I was deeply depressed, it impacted my job, which sent my anxiety through the roof, making the depression worse, in a feedback cycle from hell.

I tried medication and therapy. The medication was honestly useless, and the therapy only helped in perhaps preventing things getting worse.

What really worked was changing what I could. The pandemic was getting better already, so I worked on the rest. I moved to a country where I spoke the native language, with longer days on winter, and a hybrid job, so I'd be around people at least some of the time.

I'm still sad, and lonely, and often ansious. But it's all back to a level with which I can deal, so life goes on.

I still had to dance around the last job only lasting 6 months, when I was interviewing for this one, though. Mumbling some bullshit about "things not working out" seemed to do the trick.

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

#175

Post by peepee1982 »

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…

Kids keep you moving to some extent. But if you're lethargic already, kids will probably make it much, much worse and possibly throw you into a deep depression.

Unless you find out that you want to devote all of your life to being a SAHM/SAHD because it truly fullfills you.

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

#176

Post by SturgeonsLaw »

osclarto wrote: post #91
raspberry1337 wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

grow up. This is such a moronic comment and I hope at some point in the future you reach a level of maturity in your life where you'll understand why it is. someone opens up with a touching and personal story and you nitpick them with a trivial detail for no gain

I think the parent comment was misinterpreted, it sounds like they are highlighting that gabapentin is related to the neurotransmitter GABA (indeed it is a structural analogue). GABAergic drugs (benzos, alcohol) are notorious for causing horrendous and potentially lethal withdrawals.

To me, that comment reads as though it's in agreement with the GP post, although it could probably have benefited from some context for the vast majority of people who are unfamiliar with the nature of neurotransmitters.

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

#177

Post by clnq »

I fell into depression for half a decade and withdrew myself from society. Eventually I found my way into 6 months of therapy and went back to tech. No one in my daily life cares or knows about it. I don't think people want to know about these things, so it would definitely make for a horrible water cooler conversation.

Tech is full of people's bad coping mechanisms - cynicism, denial, escapism, self-medication, maladaptive humour, dissociation, procrastination, rumination, anxious avoidance, etc. I think that many people are one life event from losing their marbles, especially in ambitious and stressful roles. And many probably have stories about mental health crises they will never share.

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

#178

Post by riialist »

Yes sure, but I don't categorise these episodes as losing the plot. Per my perception I've gone "missing in action" for some months or even a few years during my life. Did not check any inboxes or report to anyone. For me, these episodes have been valuable, but yes, I am guilty of neglecting my family and friends during these periods.

Summa summarum I think in some situations it is the only rational option.

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

#179

Post by moremetadata »

jmcgough wrote: post #146
moremetadata wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you understand how our chemistry, our diet & our environment influences our conscious self including past experiences you may have forgotten, you'll probably have a better understanding of why things occur. If you look at the Tryptophan pathway, SSRI's can be viewed like some sort of (SQL, XSS, Code) injection attack, influencing your chemistry and your emotions in other ways which may have given you a short ter…

> If you look at the Tryptophan pathway, SSRI's can be viewed like some sort of (SQL, XSS, Code) injection attack, influencing your chemistry and your emotions in other ways which may have given you a short term boost, but may not have addressed the underlying cause. They can actually address the underlying cause. Studies have shown that there may be an overdensity of post-synaptic 5-HT2A receptors in people with dep…

> They can actually address the underlying cause.

Unless the underlying cause is too much meat eating where some amino acids block or crowd out the uptake of tryptophan into the brain at the blood brain barrier, where carbs and tryptophan see the highest increase into the brain and CSF.

Vegetarians live longer than meat eaters.

Do you think Agrarian society's had a supermarket off to one side?

Besides, has any person prescribed SSRI's that you know of had their serum metabolites 5 HIAA measured?

Have they had a fMRI to back up your claims?

Has their blue light exposure and intensity been measured and quantified?

Was a simple blood test conducted to measure the markers related to GnRH to obtain meta data to enhance diagnosis?

Unless of course the state already has access to the meta data, like our supermarket purchases, besides its 24hr surveillance using common tech like smart phones, in order for a GP to make an accurate diagnosis and prescribe said SSRI's?

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

#180

Post by riialist »

Yes sure, but I don't categorise these episodes as losing the plot.

Per my perception I've gone "missing in action" for some months or even a few years during my life. Did not check any inboxes or report to anyone. For me, these episodes have been valuable, but yes, I am guilty of neglecting my family and friends during these periods.

Summa summarum I think in some situations it is the only rational option.

As Bertrand Russell said in The Conquest of Happiness

"One should respect public opinion insofar as is necessary to avoid starvation and keep out of prison, but anything that goes beyond this is voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyranny."

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