Syndromes

Putt's Law: "Technology is dominated by two types of people: those who understand what they do not manage, and those who manage what they do not understand."

"If there is anything the nonconformist hates worse than a conformist, it's another nonconformist who doesn't conform to the prevailing standard of nonconformity." - Bill Vaughan

The Mighty Douglas : "The major difference between a thing that might go wrong and a thing that cannot possibly go wrong is that when a thing that cannot possibly go wrong goes wrong it usually turns out to be impossible to get at or repair."

There is a kind of system shock I experience after a heavy night out. A medium night out tends to send me into a depression, a heavy night out does not. Sickened by the withdrawals of a thousand chemicals, exhausted by a night free of sleep movement and hung-over like a mother fucker puts me into a strange state of shock, where I feel I could fall into a suicidal rage any second, but just don't have the will power to get the ball rolling. This state can last for days.

Saturday saw me attending two parties: an engagement party during the day, where food and alcohol was provided and a farewell in the evening. Naturally, the former basically took me out. I spent 2 hours in between the two parties failing miserably to sober up despite a 45 minute walk to Maccas and back. Fortunately, the pub we were at in classy downtown Chippendale was showing the Rugby, so I adjourned to a smoke filled corner, watched the rugby, nodded politely to any request made of me, accepted every beer handed to me and found myself in the highest of spirits by the end of it. Which left a good couple of hours to become properly obnoxious to all and sundry. Obnoxious Chas (TM) is only spotted on the rarest of occasions. To my surprise, however, most people assumed I was simply the idiot, semi-retarded cousin of the host or some such, and generally got caught up in the humour. My rendition of Guilbert and Sullivan's "I am the Pirate King", a song who's origin into my mind would need a mulit-million dollar expedition to discover, was greeted with enthusiasm:

Me: "I am the Pirate King"
Crowd: "Tralalalalala"
Me: "It is, it is a glorious thing to BE the Pirate King!"

I have no recollection of Sunday, choosing to move as little as possible. Today is System Shock, coupled with that persistent nausea that could be anxiety disorder, withdrawal, food poisoning or hypochondria. It could also be the One Year Syndrome. I shall have to write a paper on OYS. My ex-girlfriend would find herself incredibly ill if she was at a job for more than a year. She would slowly get worse, getting more and more nausous, getting more and more headaches, flus, colds, etc until she had to leave work. She would then get better, find a new job and one year later go through it all again. Recently, an external programming company we use here told me things were being held up as the lead programmer was suffering similar sympoms and that this happens "every year with this guy". I know of at least another two similar stories.

I have been at the job I am at for just over a year now, the longest I have remained at one firm (well, out of two - I was in the education system for far too long). I feel I should monitor my health for the above symptoms, as I seriously believe there is something in this. It is similar, for me at least, to getting sick back in High School sometimes. Some days I had no intention of going to school, some days the motivation is simply not there. However, the guilt of simply pretending to be sick would nag at me. My body would then provide me with the illness, an illness remarkably similar to the stomach pangs of guilt. This is actually a well known phenomenon, I wonder whether there has been work into what seems to be its older brother. I might do some research. Stay tuned. Or bookmarked. Or whatever.

Update: Ok, looked around and started learning about Factitious Disorders, Munchausen Syndrome and Somatoform Disorder (look them up with Google, if you are interested), and while they are all interesting, I think reading about such things while in System Shock will simply spark my innate excellence in hypochondria.