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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?

#251

Post by simplyluke »

triceratops wrote: post #244
lupex wrote: post #52

I had a ~two years setback at work due to covid. It was not due a psychotic episode, but probably the effects felt similarly bad [to my coworkers]: my thoughts were all over the place, I could not carry a deep tech conversation as I would jump on a tangent and carry on different seemingly unrelated topics, I appeared confused and distracted all the time. I had compounding effects of brain fog and, then undiagnosed, A…

I've heard a lot about brain fog, concentration issues, and lack of focus in the past 3 years. Could some of it be long-Covid after an asymptomatic infection?

They’re also all symptoms of depression, which many people experienced as a result of the isolation and stress of the pandemic.

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

#252

Post by hnfong »

aflag wrote: post #211
akdor1154 wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No-one ever gets every decision right. My fuckups have been lucky and haven't impacted my life too much. Your fuckups were unlucky in that they've interacted with an existing condition and thrown your life around a heap. That doesn't mean you're inferior to anyone, or have any worse/better judgement, it just means you drew a short straw. :(

Sure, we all make mistakes. But I think it's healthy to look back on those with regret rather than just shrugging it off. It's hard (even harder) to change otherwise.

Doing better doesn't mean you have to regret things. You can just accept you weren't perfect, understand you now know better (but still not perfect), and move on.

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

#253

Post by AidenVennis »

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'm having the exact same thing right now. If I reflect on what happend last year I think I burned out after a particular hard issue with my last employee; I had no help from my co-workers and was doing it all by myself. The client was constantly breathing down my neck to ask when it's done and why it's taking so long and eventually I finished it, reduced the bundle size of the website by almost 2/3 and was really happy with the result. The client tho wasn't happy because a performance number from Pagespeed didn't increase as much as they hoped and they where unhappy because it cost soo much time and money. I was done with this shit and left seeking happiness elsewhere.

Started at a new company almost half a year ago thinking a smaller company without clients, without time registration and with a single application to focus on would fix all my problems. It did for the first few months, but now I'm having the exact same issue where I really don't have the motivation to do stuff... I do have to say I also moved in to another home a few months ago and spend a lot of time fixing stuff in our new home, maybe overdoing it a bit there, so it can also be that I'm just a bit exhausted right now. Also, I notice that winter time here in Western Europe is a bitch, so getting longer days again would do my mood a lot of good.

I think I have had these moments in the past as well and I think eventually they will pass again. I'm going to take a bit more care of myself by doing some more physical training, eating healthier and seeing friends more. It just sucks for now...

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

#254

Post by SpeedilyDamage »

2devnull wrote: post #248
SpeedilyDamage wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Counterpoint: some might consider a lot of the aspects of many faiths as exacerbating to a mental health disorder. Plenty of mental health issues center around faith and specific religions, even. I think society is at a net positive for leaving "faith" behind, but spirituality can exist in the absence of any specific religion [0]. [0] https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2020/01/13/spirituality-kris...

Well, you’re simply wrong, arguably justifiably bigoted. I don’t think bigotry on (race or) creed is justified however. I speak from experience on this matter but if you don’t like personal testimony and prefer hard data, you can do the math. Spiritual woo or claims of being a prophet or the messiah himself, as another commenter related, ie hyperreligiosity are a classic symptom of bipolar mania. Worship within well…

No, I'm not wrong. The only "solid" conclusions I can draw over the last hundreds of years are the systemic abuses, the bigotry and the hate that emanates from the practice of every major religion.

Religion has irreparably harmed society, and only recently have we finally begun to eschew the completely unnecessary worship of sky beings in favor of experiencing reality for what it is. That doesn't mean we have to abandon spirituality, but it does mean we can be more sophisticated than to suggest people pick back up an ancient tool that has no use for us anymore.

No one should be forced to put themselves through the awfulness that is religion just to experience being a human with spirituality.

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

#256

Post by throw_away909 »

muzani wrote: post #243
throw_away909 wrote: post #241

You probably are an outlier. Most people haven't experienced a complete detachment from reality. However, you are not alone. I lost my marbles in 2020. Covid isolation, lack of separation between remote work and personal life and a having a 2-year at home at all times without family help led me to two consecutive visits to a mental hospital. I had never experienced any signs of mental illness other than some mild dep…

Not my situation, but I think I have several friends going through this. Any suggestions you would have in getting someone in that situation to seek help, and what the right kind of help looks like?

For me, I did not enter into the hospital by getting encouragement from a friend. It was kind of a clean break from reality overnight where I was driving around aimlessly looking for a police station to report a "crime" (just one of my delusions). Once I found an officer, I couldn't really conjure coherent sentences and he took me to the hospital at my request.

I think the best thing to do for friends experiencing an episode is to do what you can to help them get near their closest family and friends and be supportive and encouraging of them in seeking mental help from professionals.

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

#257

Post by eurasiantiger »

triyambakam wrote: post #24
eurasiantiger wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are describing a psychotic episode.

Is it a common metaphor?

It is not a metaphor.

Psychotic episodes are typically marked by delusions and hallucinations caused by things like sleep deprivation and stress leading to excess catecholaminergic activity, which causes the brain to temporarily misinterpret the senses and construct delusional logic around the interpretations in an attempt to form a cohesive internal narrative of the experience.

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

#258

Post by throw_away909 »

hnfong wrote: post #250
throw_away909 wrote: post #241

You probably are an outlier. Most people haven't experienced a complete detachment from reality. However, you are not alone. I lost my marbles in 2020. Covid isolation, lack of separation between remote work and personal life and a having a 2-year at home at all times without family help led me to two consecutive visits to a mental hospital. I had never experienced any signs of mental illness other than some mild dep…

> Most people haven't experienced a complete detachment from reality I don't know, anecdotally I suspect more people have weird issues than you'd think. We're just pretty good at hiding them until we can't.

Fair enough, being a patient in mental hospital during Covid (when everyone was at their wit's end) did reveal that were a lot of people struggling at that time. More than I would expect.

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

#259

Post by abyssin »

totetsu wrote: post #220
abyssin wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see it as emotions that, despite being ignored by a more rational part of the mind, persist and keep functionning like they should. Emotions provide information about what's good for us. It isn't always perfect information and it makes sense to manage them rationally. But at some point, reason cannot function in a void. In my experience, once I've left a situation where I wasn't aware that I didn't feel good, it be…

This is what "ADHD" kind of feels like, but the emotions react to everything, even when the metaphorical water isn't very cold at all.

Interesting that you're mentioning ADHD, I've spent quite some time lately researching on this topic. I was able to try methylphenidate recently and an unexpected effect it had on me was that I noticed this lingering anxiety had disappeared, something I usually feel around the heart, but no longer notice. Unfortunately methylphenidate has its drawbacks, and to go back to the main conversation I can imagine how it could trigger psychosis for some individuals.

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

#260

Post by reureu »

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…

I'm glad that CBT worked for you :)

To anyone who has tried CBT and felt like it wasn't working for you, know that there are other types of therapy that might be more appropriate for your situation. Personally, I went through multiple CBT therapists before happening across someone who does internal family systems (IFS) work, and have found that to be immensely more helpful for my situation.

In the process of going through therapists, I got to progressively darker places, because each bad experience with a therapist would make me feel that much more broken and unfixable. So, I really want to emphasize to anybody that's been through this, that there are dozens of different approaches to therapy and every therapist applies a particular type of therapy differently.

So, if you're struggling and have had bad therapists in the past, look up your past therapists to see what their approach was, read about different approaches to therapy, and intentionally look for someone orthogonal to what you've been through before. You might find a different approach clicks better with your situation.

And stay away from talkspace and betterhelp.

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