I have always handled essence loss effects in game as a strictly RP sort of thing, and rewarded it with Karma. I like the idea that it is more the effects the cybernetics have on you that guides you to the RP, if you are built to be a hammer every thing starts to look like a nail. All these normal people are so slow why don't they talk faster I have had six conversation via IM in my head before this guy sputtered out a sentence or two.
I also like the notion that the more power a magical type gets they also feel a sort of a disconnect from the rest of (meta)humanity. If you can kill someone with a thought then maybe bring them back from the brink of death there is bound to be some sort of a disconnect, if you can shift into a large animal or fly or what ever just by thinking it or talk to beings that are not from this plane there is bound to be some disconnect.