- Extremely depressed and anxious. (Still able to function at a pretty high level at work, but outside of work, spent all my time sleeping or crying, was very lonely, etc.) I eventually came out of this after a long series of antidepressant medications and counseling but ultimately I think a lot of the improvement came from adding traditional fats back into my diet. I had been on low-fat food for so long I think I was starving my brain of necessary fats. My mom had followed the food advice of the time which was to reduce butter, eggs, etc. I kept up with that through my twenties and it did not serve me well.
- Extremely stressed. I have worked for some very demanding bosses in startup environments. I'd wind up sleeping badly, grinding my teeth producing TMJ pain, reflux - wound up in the ER for a suspected heart attack in my early 30s (after tests it seemed like there was no actual heart problem, just very bad reflux due to stress).
- "Lost it" at a co-worker due to a COVID gaslighting/minimizing boss and co-worker. Due to a daughter who was high risk due to Down Syndrome/congenital heart disorder, I took COVID very seriously and my supervisor... did not. In fact he made a mockery of both CDC and company safety guidelines; he'd wear his mask on his chin, pull it up over his nose briefly when he rolled his chair to within 6 feet of me, then pull it down again as he rolled away; he got the whole team in a room for a Christmas party and proceeded to give a speech with his mask off. Co-worker who worked next to me was monkey see, monkey do. I was already stressed, putting in a lot of long hours, and was constantly asking him to please comply with the mask rule. One evening after a week of way too little sleep and asking him the third time that day to please keep his mask on, I lost it and really blew up at him. I was fired "for cause," the first time that ever happened to me. It meant I was not able to collect unemployment.
I regret the last one; I should have been able to walk away and take it up with HR. The thing is, by the time a work situation gets to the point where you have to involve HR, that job situation has likely gone irredeemably sour. I had no growth path in that job after almost 7 years; the software development efforts were being migrated to a new division in China run by a nepotism hire. Really, I should have left the job earlier. I have a tendency to really, really want to complete projects I have put years of work into, even when the company does not treat me properly, and I enjoyed the work I did there. It's sometimes bad to love your work, especially when combined with an excessive work ethic that was beaten into me as a child. It has taken me years to be forced into healthier a work/life balance so if I had any advice, it would be to seek that balance earlier than I did.