Sorry that you've been going for through all of this.

For what it's worth the auto-immune issues can happen in periods of high stress. The low-energy, joint pain, etc, that could all have been a result of the stress from losing your job. The body is crazy and we underestimate the extent to which our minds and the stresses of life can influence our bodily health.

> In some phases of my life, I can take a giant step back, and look at it like from a bird’s eye view.

This is exactly what I'd be doing. Think about where the world is heading and how you might best position yourself for that world and where you want to be in it. Look at least 10 years out. Overly optimising to solve immediate problems is rarely the best move longer-term. For this reason sometimes these forced-reflection periods can be beneficial in the long-term if they shake you onto a better path.

Best of luck man. It's good to hear your optimistic. I hope everything works out exactly as you hope in the end =)

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maddie0 14 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

yes, stress can kick a mild autoimmune issue into overload, and once there it can be almost self-sustaining.

what is physically happening is that the body's mast cells release neurotransmitters like histamine and serotonin, causing inflammation (so the immune system can fight some things off) leading to pain, and also fatigue (to encourage you to stay safe at home in the cave conserving energy, or some such story like that -- don't trust any specific just-so story though, especially this one).

the interesting question is what all the other things are that stress you out. i've found dietary triggers are what got me and a lot of my friends; there are some allergy cases out there, and a few friends with long COVID, which is one particularly nasty self-sustaining form. a family member had a terrible decade long episode triggered by contact dermatitis with poison oak. and generally speaking, heat and humidity are stressors too, as are pressure changes (you've heard tell of the little old lady who can tell a storm is coming because of an arthritis flare).

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bitwize 7 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

We've passed the front wall of the singularity. Even 10 years out is incredibly difficult to anticipate, now.

	▲	kypro an hour ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Yeah, I've said the same thing in other comments. The future is so hazy now. Maybe it sounds somewhat contradictory given what I said, but I think to take a long-term view at this moment you have to assume a high level of uncertainty, and that means you have to hedge and be more short-term oriented in your decisions. For example, if you need to train for 2 years to reskill, then you require another few years of entry level work in that field before earning a decent salary, it's worth considering how confident you are that you're training for a career that will even exist in say 10 or 15 years. If you're investing years of your life into a future career it's important to do that with quite a high level of certainty about the return of that. A lot of my decision making these days is trying to model out a safe route through uncertainty. A few years ago I felt like I could plan and was able to move towards the life I wanted. Now I feel like I'm just trying avoid getting my legs blown off as I walk through the minefield.
	▲	LtWorf 7 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Famine, climate catastrophe…