To ask what constitutes a “nervous breakdown”

[AnotherPhantomPooer]

I’ve always wondered what people actually mean when they say they’ve had a nervous breakdown. When I was younger I went through something very traumatic and my perspective on almost everything and everyone changed. The stress of it all made it difficult to go back to work, I lost a lot of weight, had nightmares and became very weak. It felt like I was walking through quicksand every minute of every day. At the time and in retrospect I wouldn’t have called it a breakdown, despite the fact my life had irrevocably changed. It felt like the world had disappeared from under me. It took a long time to build myself back up.

Since the birth of my child I’ve again circled the drain. Again, all situational stress. My marriage is on the brink and something in me recently snapped and changed my perspective on things and people in a major way once again. Again, although very significant I would say my reactions are probably normal in response to extremely stressful circumstances but not necessarily a breakdown.

Am I wrong? Is what I’m describing a breakdown? Or am I off track?

I think of a very hard time in my life as the time I had a nervous breakdown whether that is true or not.

Work and marriage both went tits up at the same time. I found my exH of donkeys years had been cheating on me throughout our time together and was in the middle of his latest three year affair with someone who worked for him. Getting to divorce took two years of unrelenting stress and abusive behaviour from him.

During that time I could function but only in a very linear way. I'd take the children to school them come home and go straight to bed and sleep until it was time to pick them up again. I could only deal with one thing at a time so to deal with the divorce shit I used to save it up and deal with it one day a week only. I always met all my commitments even though I was a tearful miserable mess. I just hated my life.

We have been divorced five years now but he still pops up and takes me to court over something now and again or gets the DC to invite him to some event I have arranged for them where he knows he is not welcome (we are NC).

I've sort of got past it, but I know I am much more mentally fragile than I was before. It takes very little to make me either lose my temper or sink into depression and I have periods when I have to hide away from the world to get myself back together. I don't love where I am now in life. It is tolerable but I don't get pleasure from things any more. I definitely think of myself as damaged by what I went through even though I am functioning again now.

Agree it’s not really recognised as a medical term.
I think I did have a breakdown a few years ago very stressful time I wasn’t eating/sleeping properly felt physically ill all the time one day I woke up and just couldn’t function. Off work didn’t leave the house my mum had to come round and make her dressed take me out to places until i was able to function again.

It's not a clinical term but the word 'breakdown' is a very apt description of what can happen.

I've had two breakdowns due to stress I suppose.

Firstly aged 15 in 1992 during my GCSEs I actually have Epilepsy but started suffering from pseudo seizures which are seizures caused by acute stress rather than by epilepsy.
I was not making it up or putting it on, it was as if all the stress I was under doing my GCSEs as well as issues with friends etc had caused my brain & body to malfunction.
I also had an eating disorder & intrusive thoughts. My neurologist referred me to a psychiatrist but my parents cancelled the appointment because of the stigma.
I slowly recovered alone & took 4 GCSEs.

In 2012 after 4 years suffering depression, seeing psychiatrists, working & being of sick then getting better again, I developed Psychosis.
I thought that my neighbour was in a gang & wanted to shoot me; I thought that my workplace, my community mental team & the govt were in a conspiracy to make me kill myself & that mi6 were spying on me.
It was a scary time. I lost my career & got an less stressful job later on.
I was put on anti psychotics which had horrible side effects at first but once they started to take effect I began to get better.
I was later diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder (bipolar type) & have remained on the meds.

I just wanted to explain what stress can do to some people.
Yes I had underlying physical & mental health conditions but stress triggered the breakdowns.
We all need a bit of stress or life can be too boring but too much is just really unhealthy.

tierra. I wish you and all the other posters contentment x

As others have said. ..it's not a clinical term.
It ISA an every day term though I guess ....tends to be that people label their acute stress reaction/PTSD /florid psychosis /depressive episode as a 'nervous breakdown,'....it is also easier to explain than the detailed symptomatology you'd see in the tje DSM /ICD

My mum was hospitalised for several months, given ECT and was in a terrible state for almost 2 years. This was from 1974, when I was 15. They called it a "nervous breakdown". She attempted suicide, was agoraphobic, etc. On heavy duty tranquillisers for years.

Some years later I realised it was severe depression.

I think sometimes people bandy the term around as it sounds suitably dramatic, but I understand it to mean a mental state where you are unable to function normally for a sustained period.

I'd say my dh had one, he sort of snapped one day and couldn't handle working either in the office or at home, tearful, angry, stressed suicidal.

went off sick and was offered to be sectioned but stayed home, with crisis team visiting daily.

I agree that it’s a term with multiple interpretations that people band about to cover a wide range of mental health problems.

Form me, I had a ‘nervous breakdown’ which pretty much lasted 18 months - and by goodness was I nervous! I’m a year into my recovery now but I still feel incredibly anxious when I hear loud noises or walk through busy places and I cannot cope with any kind of difficult conversation /confrontation. I used to be a confident and lively individual but I am literally a wreck on the inside after the things that have happened to me. Yes, it’s a slightly outdated term but I can certainly see why it became a go to phrase.

You are all very wonderful - keep talking

*For me (waaaaaaaah - hate typos)

I suffered a breakdown earlier this year. It's not a medical term as such, the words the mental health team used were mental health crisis but nervous breakdown is a sort of old fashioned term. I had gone through a lot of things and i got to the point where I couldn't cope with my own head, I was completely overwhelmed. I had what I can only describe as a day long panic attack that lasted through the night and eventually when a family member found me that broke in to a break down of emotions and crying (more like wailing), I don't remember too much but I apparently was screaming that I was frightened. I went to see my community mental health team the next day. The whole thing was terrifying. I spent some weeks resting and then slowly I've been getting back to normal.
before this i had wondered what a breakdown actually meant - i was so stressed and thought that high stress equalled breakdown. but then that day i realised thats probably more accurate. high stress periods can lead to that.
hope you're okay OP. try and talk to someone about it in real life before things get worse it makes a world of difference

I have four friends that have had their own ‘nervous breakdowns’, one was complete psychosis, resulting in being sectioned. One was a bipolar episode that went on for weeks, lots of that on a private secure ward. One was a postnatal complete meltdown, terror, inability to function, but did function with help and support, until meds stabilised - that took probably 18 months to get past. Another went in to a sort of non-life depression after a traumatic situation, and didn’t really function for six months.

I don’t really agree with the term nervous breakdown as it’s so simplistic, but I think it’s better than not naming it at all and just avoiding addressing something that somebody experienced.

As far as I recall, none of the above friends really knew how else to describe what happened to them though, so they tell people about their experience in terms that the other person will understand.