[tetsuhamu]

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 the episodes while being as much of myself as I can without a relapse.

To your point, I think psychological disorders are common in tech fields. PTSD or BPD, for example, frequently have "control compulsion" issues. Being compelled to control works very well if you are managing a fleet of 10,000 servers. It's been difficult to explain to my old friends why I would care about things like latency and GC STW events because a normal person without control issues doesn't find it emotionally appealing. Psychotic/hallucinatory/delusional features have short-term value in certain situations, like coming up with new product ideas or rapidly "pivoting" between market fits. I won't say it's normal, but I will say it's predictable.

[raffraffraff]

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.

[cloverich]

Yes and no. OP is drawing out a very important point that despite everyone having a tipping point, psychiatric illness is very real and very different from what most people's tipping point looks like, both in trigger and outcome. It's less like a linear scale and more like an on/off switch when it hits. Having an understanding of what it looks like, how to help manage it, and what can / cannot be controlled, can be the difference in having a good (recoverable) outcome vs a really bad one.

It's not to disparage stress and its impact on all of us, but what happens to folks w/ psychiatric illness is a whole other level of devastating.

[mcv]

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.

[caddemon]

Yeah I think it also depends on other health factors - if OP was chronically sleep deprived that can make psychosis much more likely, and obviously it's also possible for recreational drug use to be a factor.

[theGnuMe]

Stress is an emotional reaction.

[genewitch]

what? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cortisol

no.