In Feb 2025, on a gloomy day in Mountain View, I worked from home alone like a normal day in the past 5 years. As usual, I delayed my lunch past 12:30 p.m. so I could extend the morning peak productivity by another hour or so. There was some Nespresso coffee left in the mug; I took a sip and walked downstairs to the kitchen to figure out what lunch would be. It was one of those chilly winter days in the Bay Area, and I remember everything in my sight was all grey.
All of a sudden, I experienced an extremely accelerated heart rate, to a degree that I immediately felt was not normal. Yes, I had too much coffee before and this was certainly not the same—the fast heartbeat was persistent and never seemed to go away. I informed my wife and called 911 out of caution—otherwise, I feared I might pass out without being noticed for hours. During the phone call, I could barely finish a sentence as my heart was pounding. Within minutes, a fire truck arrived, followed by an ambulance and another fire truck. It was quite a scene in front of the house. I opened the door and waited outside, as instructed by the 911 operator. Early examination showed I was doing okay, and I was asked to go to the emergency room at El Camino Hospital for follow-up checks. Rounds of checks showed that my heart was healthy, but I might have developed GERD, a symptom that I never heard of before.
Since then, my quality of life has gotten worse, to say the least. When I first looked at the list of foods I should avoid, I asked the doctor—what else is left? Adamantly, I decided to continue eating and drinking as before, but the punishment often came immediately. I started to log what triggered my GERD and avoided those items altogether. As you can imagine, it was a sad process, and I said goodbye to one favorite after another. Eventually, my own list [0] looks almost the same as the doctor recommended diet.
The struggle of please-let-me-at-least-keep-coffee went on for over a year. Caffeine was one of the strongest triggers for my GERD symptoms, but I was reluctant to get rid of it because it was essential to my job—to perform well on this brain heavy job solving complex technical problems and working with really smart people, I need that caffeine! However, starting 2026, the negative effect of caffeine on my body outweighed the productivity gains, and I had to stay away from it entirely. After the caffeine withdrawal period, I felt dull, slow, and unmotivated at work—much anticipated, but still hard to accept.
Somewhere in 2026, it started to affect my driving. The symptoms were especially acute on a full stomach. This one was particularly painful since driving is almost the only effective way to go around in the Bay Area. One Saturday morning in April, I was driving the family to a cherry u-pick place in Brentwood right after breakfast, and the symptoms quickly kicked in to a point I felt dizzy and almost passed out. For the family’s safety, I had to pull over on Highway 880. Over time, I learned to cope with it in a few ways, and chewing gum appeared to be the most effective one.
Because of dieting, losing weight is expected. Friends who hadn’t seen me for some time were surprised to find out how skinny I became, and I was asked how I managed weight and avoided middle-age spread in a party.
All this time, I always thought I could only cope with GERD and mitigate the symptoms, but never recover from it. This idea is further reinforced by countless people who shared similar experiences from Xiaohongshu and Reddit.
And yes, I visited gastroenterologists, psychologists, took medicines like antacids and PPIs, and went through a few rounds of endoscopies. Frustratingly or fortunately, none of the tests revealed any severe issue in my body. While these findings were reassuring in some ways, they didn’t really change anything and the symptoms continued.
Through it all, work stress was certainly a contributing factor. I knew that, but I certainly did not realize the extent of it. In May 2026, I started losing sleep. This was especially tough for me because I had always taken pride in managing stress and sleeping soundly no matter what happened. Losing that last line of defense became the final blow, and I decided to take a career break starting June. There was no expectation that a break would heal anything. All I knew is I desperately needed one.
Sadly, nothing really improved in the first month of the break. I still had those problems, and my body and mind were still very tense. One day, I was close to calling 911 when I was taking my son to lunch after a visit to Hiller Aviation Museum. My heart raced again for no reason. The anxiety about “what will happen to my son if I pass out here” was dominating my mind.
Two months into the career break, I cautiously took a few sips of cold brew one day and surprisingly found out that nothing happened to me afterward: no burning sensation, no chest pain, no dizziness—only the pure refreshment of the caffeine. Little by little, I started to increase the amount of caffeine over the next few days, and once again it turned out that my body could handle it. I slowly expanded my diet back to foods and drinks on the blacklist, like fried eggs and scallion pancakes for breakfast, and voilà, I stayed healthy. From this point on, I started to realize that the break had done wonders for me!
Looking back and combining the doctors’ notes, the revelation is that it wasn’t just GERD—it was also somatization driven by profound burnout. Years of chronic work stress, years of isolation from remote work, and high-stakes firefighting had pushed my nerve system to its breaking point. While my mind thought I was still coping well, my body took the hit: the stomach and heart became the ultimate pressure-release valves. Some of what I experienced were actually panic attacks—disguised as runaway heart rates, dizziness behind the wheel, and intense fear—which then fed directly into the acid reflux. This formed a vicious loop: the panic spurred more gastric distress, the GERD symptoms convinced me something fatal was happening, and that catastrophic thinking only amplified the panic. Not to mention, all of these left me utterly pessimistic about my life—from time to time I seriously thought everything was going downhill, and my life may end abruptly at some point.
Quitting the job and starting the break proves to be one of the most correct decisions I made. I’m extremely grateful that nothing worse happened to me and most symptoms are not permanent. The only regret is I should have started the break sooner, but reaching that decision is easier said than done—I certainly don’t want to quit every time there is a minor symptom or every time I’m under stress. Knowing when to stop is very tricky and there are many considerations that go into it. I’m sure there are people out there struggling to answer the same question, and I sincerely hope my experience could be helpful to you in some way.
[0] Log of food and drinks that caused the misery:
- 07/11/2026: Yesterday’s symptoms persisted until noon.
- 07/10/2026: Ate In-N-Out for lunch, had pickles, ketchup, and tomatoes. Felt slight symptoms in the evening and ate some soda crackers. Chicken pho from Pho Ha Noi for dinner, drank quite a bit of broth. Felt dizzy after the meal.
- 07/08/2026: Ate half a croissant after waking up, then developed reflux symptoms around 11:00 AM. Chick-fil-A at noon, experienced severe palpitations. Finally relieved after drinking plenty of water.
- 07/04/2026: Hotel breakfast this morning: scrambled eggs (egg yolks), potatoes, a tiny bit of peach, a glass of apple juice, and a McDonald’s McMuffin with eggs, cheese, and ham. Took an antacid afterward to prevent GERD discomfort. GERD was still very severe even after taking the antacid today, with abdominal pain and diarrhea.
- 07/03/2026: Hotel breakfast this morning: scrambled eggs (egg yolks), potatoes, a very greasy patty, and a glass of apple juice. Took two Tums beforehand as a preventive measure; didn’t feel particularly unwell afterward.
- 07/02/2026: Spicy food (upper abdominal pain).
- 06/27/2026: Spicy food.
- 06/26/2026: Drank Trader Joe’s mango yogurt at 8:00 PM.
- 06/23/2026: Ate two slices of pizza at 9:00 PM.
- 06/18/2026: ☕️ Decaf.
- 06/09/2026: ☕️ Decaf.
- 06/08/2026: ☕️ Decaf.
- 06/07/2026: Tomato and egg soup.
- 05/29/2026: Chinese chives.
- 05/29/2026: After 3 days of drinking small amount of cold brew with milk.
- 05/23/2026: Double-Double 😭.
- 05/15/2026: Blue Bottle decaf.
- 05/14/2026: In-N-Out Cheeseburger + Animal Style fries + vanilla shake.
- 04/29/2026: 🍵.
- 04/28/2026: Jiu Niu Ramen.
- 04/18/2026: Drank a matcha latte at noon.
- 04/17/2026: Ate homemade pizza before school pickup, then had Korean BBQ for dinner. No coffee consumed this day.
- 04/06/2026: Tonkotsu broth from tonkotsu ramen.
- 03/15/2026: McDonald’s Big Arch.
- 03/08/2026: Drove after drinking coffee.
- 01/22/2026: Jiu Niu Ramen?
- 12/29/2025: 🍣.
- 12/27/2025: Fried chicken.
- 12/24/2025: Guobao Pork (sweet and sour crispy pork).
- 12/22/2025: Hot chocolate 🍫.
- 12/08/2025: Avocado Lime Ranch from Chick-fil-A salad.
- 11/25/2025: ShackBurger double (2nd time).
- 11/??/2025: Butter on bread.
- 11/17/2025: Nigiri with lemon 🍣.
- 11/11/2025: Suspect lunch: Shake Shack double burger.
- 11/10/2025: Suspect afternoon yogurt + dinner pork baozi.
- 11/06/2025: Chewing gum?
- 11/02/2025: 🍫 on Honolulu Cookie.
- 10/28/2025: Fried egg 🍳.
- 10/23/2025: Cold brew.
- 10/22/2025: Mint candy in the morning, Americano in the afternoon.
- 10/21/2025: Flat White.
- 10/14/2025: Braised pork rice (Lu Rou Fan)? Vegetarian Moo Shu?
- 10/04/2025: Da Lu Mian (noodles with gravy)?
- 09/23/2025: Aloe vera or Jimmy Dean.
- 09/20/2025: Otoko Ume (plum candy).
- 09/12/2025: Snapple Peach Tea, lasted into the next day.
- 09/06/2025: Whole Foods peach tea.
- 09/05/2025: Jin Sho Sushi 🍣.
- 08/05/2025: Vinegar (a tiny bit).
- 08/02/2025: Red grapes 🍷.
- 07/29/2025: Doubanjiang (fermented bean paste).
- 07/12/2025: Hawthorn flakes, “helps digestion” my ass.
- 07/02/2025: Went to the office, ate ???, severe symptoms.
- 06/28/2025: Vitamin gummies I have been taking, mild symptoms.
- 06/24/2025: Trader Joe’s cookie dough ice cream, mild symptoms.
- 06/13/2025: Cashews! Too much fat, severe symptoms.
- 06/12/2025: Ate a small bowl of ice cream two days in a row; sensation of food backing up into the throat, bloating for 4 consecutive days with upper abdominal pain during bloating.
- 06/12/2025: Tried stopping medication.
- 06/10/2025 – 06/11/2025: Felt dizzy working in front of the large monitor starting in the afternoon.
- 05/28/2025: Half a small can of Sprite.
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