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Comment by madaxe | Hacker News Reader

It's fine once you adjust your value system to recognise that work is life, and that everything else is basically irrelevant. No family to speak of (apart from the ones who expect a monthly cheque from me (brother, aunt, mother)), co-workers are employees, so not appropriate for me to talk about it with them!

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This has to be a well-executed joke...

Or someone who has severely lost track of perspective.

You know it's done well when you really can't tell.

I'm going with "lost track of perspective" here. I've heard the same tune too many times to keep thinking that all those people are really very good dead-pan comedians.

My interpretation is that he's too shy to ask for help. Most manic depressants are just that, depressed, they hide in their hole and someone has to dig them out (possibly themselves).

Posting self-loathing material is subtle for someone to come along and pick up their shoulders. They know what they're doing is unhealthy or irregular but won't outright admit it because it shows weakness. "My life sucks but I march on and continue to produce acceptable deliverables" is a pride thing.

tl;dr - start slowly, admit that you can improve your life and STILL churn out those code snippets and you'll find yourself happier!

Yes, but if its NOT a joke, am I a bad person for laughing?

I was saying the same thing not a month ago. Until one day, i completely flipped out during a meeting, stormed out, insulted the owner, and never came back.

I had been working way to much for the past 4years, and on the months leading to the melt down, it was just unhealthy, and i kept going at it, using drugs to keep up (i am deeply ashamed looking back...), barely sleeping and eating. And slowly it creep up on me, until i completely lost it. By my foolish attitude, i had not only burn myself (its been a month, i haven't been out of my place, i haven't written a line of code - i tried, but just the sight of it makes me sick -), but also hurt my co-workers and company, who in the process have lost their Chief Engineer and probably the project i was working on as well -months of work, and in the 6digits investment-.

There are people you can talk too, if it's not friends, professional help is there, i know how hard it can be to admit you've screwed up your life and health, but for your own sake, go get some help, before it is too late.

Because when your mind says stop, it'll be past the point where you can fix this "easily", and you'll be stuck with your decision for months, may be years. Take control of your situation, before your mind does it for you...

Yeah, I've reached a special place. Modafinil to work days on end without sleep, grass to force myself to sleep when I know I really need to.

I definitely need help, and I know it, but in the UK, the social stigma attached to seeing a mental healthcare professional exceeds that of going insane.

Work is life? That is a recipe for either 1) burnout and depression or 2) an early death.

You're literally killing yourself. You just don't know it yet.

No dude! It's cool if what you value in your life is work but plenty of people work to live. Jobs shouldn't require you to put in 80 hour work weeks, that should be the choice of the individual.

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