To ask what a ‘nervous breakdown’ feels like?

[Colouredfelttippens]

I feel like I might be on the edge of one but not sure if im being overly dramatic.
id like to avert it if at possible. Is it a real thing that your body just says ‘no more’ and you basically can’t get up?

A (male) friend of mine had a breakdown a few years ago with a resultant stay in a psychiatric hospital for several weeks. Thankfully he made a full recovery. He literally “cracked” … could not form a coherent sentence, would disappear for hours on “walks” with no idea of where he was going, bouts of hysteria. I really hope you feel better soon, perhaps medication might help.

I’m not sure if I meet the official criteria but I’m pretty sure it’s what happened to me last year - for me I basically got so stressed out I couldn’t sleep, was crying all the time and had panic attacks / melt downs (quite literally rocking on the floor) yet couldn’t make myself stop working all the time as I felt guilty if I wasn’t. It got so I couldn’t control my emotions even at work when you can normally put on a game face.

To stop it I chose to give up work for a while and have a reset to get my perspective back. I assume if I’d have gone to the doctors they might have been able to help in other ways.

Not sure if this counts, but after extreme stress involving estrangement I developed myoclonic jerks, panic attacks, loss of self esteem and self doubt. Everything I thought about myself cracked and I did not know who I was .anymore. I also developed very bad infections, including a kidney infection which nearly became life threatening. I think my immune system became weak.

I feel very anxious and exhausted. I physically am struggling to walk upstairs and my heart is too fast. I want to sleep all the time and the only time I feel ok is if I’m lying still with my eyes closed. I’m having panic attacks.
I feel like if I could just stay home and not talk to anyone and sleep it would be ok.
Instead I’ve somehow got to get through another day at work and I feel genuinely concerned that I’m not going to manage it. I cannot concentrate and all I can think about is going to sleep.

I had one 3 years ago, after a traumatic event, plus Covid lockdowns, I had a nervous breakdown. I could no longer care for my children or even get myself a drink of water. Thankfully I have an amazing DH who stepped up, I got medication and a therapist, and was finally discharged from NHS therapy last year. I’ll never be completely the person I was before, but I’m 95% the old me, and I’m happy.

I’d recommend anyone who’s struggling with their mental health to reach out to their GP and local mental health service. Also really important to have support in real life, tell those closest to you that you’re struggling.

I think it's probably different for different people. A friend of mine finished work one day and got into his van and instead of driving home went missing for a week and ended up being found in Scotland. He just drove and didn't stop (he was from down south.)

Have you reached out to your GP? It sounds like it is time to do so, don't try and go into work, don't keep pushing yourself and suffer in silence, get an appointment ASAP.

It's like a complete shutdown, can't sleep, can't talk, can't really move. Happens after period of extreme stress and anxiety.
Other people have to intervene to get the person treatment.

Have you had any tests to rule out underlying medical causes? Tiredness and heart palpitations are symptoms of anemia. Feelings of doom are also associated with some heart conditions.

I had one at 19. For me it was basically like a intense panic attack that lasted many months. I thought I was going mad. I felt as scared as if someone was holding a gun to my head for months on end. It was non-stop panic that eventually led to deep depression. I couldn't do anything, had to quit college, spent all day crying and panicking.
I have to say the whole experience made me appreciate normality. I felt so happy once I recovered, just to feel normal!! It was 30 years ago and I still appreciate each day of normality.

Suggest you speak to your GP

Or, ask a friend to contact GP for you, to make an appointment / attend with you

Please reach out for help and support

Please pleas please tell someone how you’re feeling, I felt very similar and ending up writing it down and handing the note to my GP. Getting signed off work was the best thing that could have happened, you need space and time to deal with this - and you’ve still got the choice to do it on your terms because your body (and mind) will eventually force you to stop anyway.

you should stop work op. it’s enough for you to suspect that you’re having one . you don’t need more evidence.

Please go and see your GP, whatever it is you’re not very well and need to rest up. Can you call in sick? Hope you feel better soon x

I felt like I smashed into a thousand pieces and I was sort of looking down on them and didn’t know where to start putting myself back together. That was my moment.

In the run up I was having panic attacks and migraines and random pains. Would have to run to the loo to cry at work. I was at a real low point with my health. Mind and body were basically just shutting down.

I spent months walking around with sick notes for stress in my handbag that I didn’t want to give in to. I was seeing my doctor for the physical symptoms and he kept linking it back to stress so I ignored him and pushed on. My advice is don’t do that. Speak to your doctor and take some time out.

It took me nearly two years to get back to work. I can’t function at the same level now so I’ll never earn the same or have the same job satisfaction even 10 years down the road. And my capacity to manage stressors seems to be permanently reduced too.

Take any time you need and sod work!

My advice is seek help from your psychiatrist now or GP if you don't have one. I had a mental breakdown and was in hospital for a long time.

For me I lost interest in everything (even my children.) I only slept 2 hours at night for 3 months. I was suicidal and self harming. Life just felt painful. No concentration. Isolated myself from everyone. Couldn't make a decision. Couldn't think straight. Talked nonsense. Just wanted to not be here. Lay on the sofa a lot. Bad anxiety. Couldn't go to work.

Get signed off sick OP before you get more ill. Then start looking for a new job if you think that is what might be causing you so much stress.

Get some help, your work will already know something is wrong, go to you gp, get signed off. Concentrate on yourself. Talk to close people about what you are feeling. My dh left it too late and was ill for a long time.

For me, extreme anxiety that wouldn't let up. I was terrified all the time. Couldn't sleep, couldn't eat, couldn't stop crying, couldn't think coherently. Unable to function at work. Just about able to get the children to and from school and keep them fed. I ended up on antidepressants/anti anxiety medication and with a clinical psychologist. Took two months off work, they were thankfully very understanding. Please go to the doctor, OP, and take time off, before the wheels well and truly come off.

It was a gradual build up that I thought I could manage until I completely cracked (in hindsight I should have sought help much, much earlier). It culminated in not being able to physically enter my workplace even though I was dressed and in the car park - I phoned a colleague (I was pretty incoherent by this stage) and then left and went to walk in centre where they said they could tell I was extremely stressed and asked what I wanted them to do - I said to tell me not to go to work as I'll just try and carry on and really, really couldn't. They were great and I was signed off and a plan put in place to help me get better.
Recovering fully has taken a while but I realised just a few day's ago how different my life is and how much happier I am now. For me the best things I did were change my job to one with better work life balance, and also try to reconnect with the things that genuinely made me happy as I'd lost sight of so much of this trying to do everything at work (for me this was reimbracing my geeky hobbies)

Please don't leave it any longer and get some help today. So many of us have been through this there's lots of love out there to help you through x

Mine was gradual. I went to work one night and a friend said I looked dead behind the eyes. Others noticed I wasn't right before I did. I was sent home after my night shift with the instruction to phone my GP when I got home. I had to pull over and phone them because I had the urge to wrap my car around a tree.

In hindsight something wasnt right a while before that as I was crying a lot, just huge over spilling of emotions.

Then I was signed off work and lost my appetite, stayed on the sofa for a week, didn't look after myself, literally couldn't function, had to move back in with my parents for a while as my then partner now husband was military and was away at the time on tour, it was really shit.

I was medicated to get through the day then medicated to get to sleep.

I kept a sort of diary during that time and it was rambling and incoherent and quite disturbing.

Please reach out and take necessary steps to reduce as much stress as you can and take time to look after yourself.

Do not ignore how you are feeling. Take that break.

If you need to sleep, sleep. Much better that you sleep, your body healing itself, than get to the point that you are beyond sleep.

Talk to someone you trust in real life / talk to your doctor.

Try to take time to be outside. Keep eating, as fresh as you can.

Yoga great (deep breathing brings your cortisol levels down naturally and your body & brain will appreciate stretching) even on YouTube, even better in a group if you can.

A stitch in time saves nine. Be good to yourself, you are amazing ❤️

Yes, you are reminding me of other symptoms. I barely ate too and became under weight, I cried every day too. I was in hospital for 3 years. Please seek help now.

Definitely GP. ASAP. What you describe could also have a physical cause, such as low iron, thyroid etc. ,

Mine was crying or snapping over nothing, inability to make decisions or making poor ones quickly, brain fog, exhaustion, anxiety. 2 weeks off (should have been 3) and antidepressants worked wonders. It made me more patient and I got my sense of humour back (that I hadn't realised I'd lost).

Thank you all for sharing your experiences.

I am finding I can’t enjoy anything and things I’d usually do - such as reading / painting etc I am unable to do. I just feel too anxious to access it.

other people make me more anxious so I’m finding it hard to go anywhere and it feels as though every cell in my body is depleted in energy. I sleep but wake feeling just as exhausted. If I am left on my own, ideally in the dark, and I can just keep my eyes shut then the anxiety becomes more manageable.