For the part couple of years, I've been having some psychological issues. I don't feel ready to write a full-blown post about this, though I want to do that at some point, because I really think it can help people in similar situations.

For me, a big part of my problem was that I'd often be late with tasks. When people asked for a progress update, I'd not respond but think "if I work on this for a little bit longer, I can come back with a better progress update." I'd delay getting back to that person for so long, that I became anxious about having that conversation, and having to explain why I'd been silent for so long, and I was scared of their reaction. This leads to a vicious cycle where you're too anxious to even open that chat conversation, but not responding also increases the anxiety.

Now, I'm getting back to many of these people, with the help of my therapist, and as you can imagine, many of these conversations are far less dramatic than my anxiety-driven mind had made them out to be.

When you get physically ill, it's easy to say "Sorry, I was out for a few days because of the flu", but it feels weird to have that same conversation about psychological issues.

Can you share your experiences with psychological issues impacting your career or other parts of your life that you value greatly? I think it's great for people in similar situations to know that they're not "weird", that many people have issues, and that they're not alone.

I really like this community, and I know that the code of conduct already makes this clear, but writing posts like this is scary, so please be gentle with the people who are giving us a view into their personal life and mind in this discussion.