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?

Have you made an appointment to see your GP or psych nurse/psychiatrist?

I know that place OP and you need help before you completely break. NHS and Mind offer free counselling and you need to speak to your doctor about stress to get you out of the pressure cooker. They can help with time off work and medication to calm the anxiety.

I didn't sleep for three days, wrote the word "red" on everything in my room in red pen and cried til I threw up.

Can’t get an appointment - have made a request and they have booked a telephone call for me for next Thursday. They don’t give a time so there’s a fair chance I won’t be able to take the call as at work.

You can't go to work, this is not to be messed about with.

I don't know if it counts, but I had anxiety so bad that eventually one day I just couldn't do it any more. I became so much calmer when I accepted that, if I ended up on hospital or dead then fine, but I wasn't doing another day of that for anything. As a family we made huge changes to our lives immediately and I feel so much better.

I absolutely agree with whoever said feeling normal is something I appreciate so much, I have these moments of bliss sometimes at just being okay and living without a sense of constant dread. I genuinely think I'm a better person for it, weirdly.

In the case of my family member, a very stressful life event caused it. He stopped functioning completely, suffered psychosis and was sectioned. He has had schizophrenia and been heavily medicated ever since, he isn’t the same person we knew before. It’s heartbreaking.

I don’t think there is a medical definition of a nervous breakdown, but it sounds like you need help. If you can’t get a GP appointment and you are at risk of harming yourself, please go to A&E. It’s not a nice place to be, but keeping yourself and others safe is the most important thing.

For me it started with a week long panic attack that was so bad I needed Valium to break the cycle. My GP would call up and speak to my DH about how I’m feeling as I was too panicky to talk.
I cried all the time. I woke up and would vomit immediately knowing I’d have to face another day. I couldn’t eat anything other than crisps.

I could only find peace when I was asleep.

A truly horrific time of my life. I’m so glad it’s behind me :(

Hugs to you OP! X

There will be a crisis team number for your area. Can you find it? Or if you’re willing to share your area we could help.

Or ring 111, may be better after 6pm when surgeries shut. They should be able to help with an urgent appt.

if you feel like you can’t keep yourself safe then go to a&e.

This pretty much sums it up, I'd say.

I struggled for decades with my mental health and thought I was coping... until, a few years ago, when I wasn't. Suffered a complete mental breakdown for which was hospitalised for over a month.

The only way I could think to describe it was that, I'd gone beyond being mentally unwell to the point where my brain actually felt physically 'broken' and needed fixing. I was just 'out of it'... couldn't eat, couldn't sleep and I went down to 7st.

Thankfully, I don't remember too much about the breakdown itself (such is the nature of it!) - but my DH certainly does - and it's not an experience he or I ever want to repeat.

I’m not sure I had a psychotic break or if I was close to one. It started off I was very thirsty, intense cotton mouth that no amount of water would help. Very fast heartbeat. Felt very tired but very wired, like electricity was going through me. Then I couldn’t sleep, it got so bad I was hallucinating and having panic attacks. I had no appetite whatsoever, lost a ton of weight and when I did eat it all tasted and felt like cardboard in my mouth. I couldn’t drive, I just couldn’t make myself do it, it was so very stressful.

I ended up going to my internist who recommended a talk psychiatrist (this was 26 years ago) who i saw two times a week for a few months and prescribed Klonopin (which I realize is hated nowadays but it saved my life). I gradually weaned myself off it but to this day I do have a stash for absolute emergencies. Another one who realizes how blissful normality is and I’ll never ever forget it, it was the worst time of my life including parental death, my own cancer diagnosis, miscarriages and other trauma.

Yes, I had what I believed was a nervous breakdown a couple of years ago. I had a relationship end unexpectedly, I was working 50 hours a week while single parenting an autistic child. I also had a blackmail incident (I was the victim) and it was horrendous to deal with. Also ended up with two STDs after a one night stand to add to all of that 😂

I managed to keep most of it relatively hidden.

I suddenly felt a huge disconnect from reality - almost like I was floating around but not there. I had blanks of time I couldn't account for as I was spaced out.

I also started feeling insanely paranoid, thinking I was being followed, listened to, that I was going to get kidnapped etc. To cope with this, I was drinking an insane amount of alcohol to try and knock me out so I could sleep.

I couldn't concentrate on anything with my paranoia - it was consuming me. I was so scared of even stepping out my door. I didnt cry, I didnt feel joy. I was just like a shadow of my former self, with severe anxiety. The panic attacks were off the scale.

After months of this, I took long term sick and work, got lots of therapy and saw my GP. It also took months of healing but I am back to how I was before. I was convinced I was becoming schizophrenic or something awful. My GP and therapist just said I was burned out, experiencing some PTSD and had a mental breakdown of some sort but it wasn't related to a specific mental illness.

Exhaustion and palpitations are two of the most common symptoms of Long Covid. What you're experiencing might not be a nervous breakdown but a physical response to an infection. Covid isn't the only virus to cause post viral complications but it has meant they're much more common because the UK is now on its 8th covid wave.

i think its a collapse of self, and often it's quite a good thing, like a breakthrough rather than breakdown

Take the day off work. You really need to prioritise your mental health.

The term has fallen out of use in healthcare and psychiatry, as it can mean so many different things! In the days before clinical depression or psychotic episodes were widely understood, patients presenting with severe mental illness would often be told they were having a 'nervous breakdown' and patients who attempted suicide (serious attempt brought on by trauma or severe stressors) would be labelled the same way.

Nowadays it tends to be a euphemism eg somebody who doesn't want to give away too much information about their condition might say their career break is due to a nervous breakdown. Recovering alcoholics and drug users sometimes describe the time they were addicted as a nervous breakdown.

Nowadays there's less stigma and more knowledge around mental health, people tend to get specific diagnosis eg 'panic disorder' 'psychotic depression' 'bipolar type 1' 'generalised anxiety disorder with features suggestive of emotionally unstable personality disorder'.

Breakdown also implies a point you're unable to cope with normal daily activities like eating, showering, work, shopping, managing household. Or losing touch with reality.

Why do you think you're having a breakdown? Have you talked to anybody about it?

It's very rare for a severe psychiatric condition to come on suddenly, usually they have a slow onset over weeks or months.

Hope you're ok and feeling better soon.

I didn't feel anything. I just watched my body fall apart and to the floor, crying, throwing up. But I didn't feel anything, as if I wasn't even there. If you feel like you are to break_down, to stop functioning as a person, grind to a halt, seek medical help as soon as possible.

That's an interesting perspective.

I'm not sure I share it, though.

I was hospitalised for 3 years, have to take lots of meds and have never got back to being ok again.

Please try your utmost to take that call OP.

I had a breakdown about 10 yrs ago. I could not function at all. I could not eat, could not sleep and the 10th morning of not eating a thing nor sleeping I collapsed trying to get up.

Obvs I was admitted and then transferred to the psychiatric ward. I was there 2 weeks but I do not recall any of that time. I only know as it's what I am told. I barely even remember being in hospital at all.

Please don't ignore the signs and get to this stage.

💐

Yes, you'll obviously get an actual diagnosis in hospital. But a mental breakdown refers to the point your mental health got so bad you couldn't cope with normal life anymore. You can't eat, sleep, concentrate, work, socialise, care, look after your children, look after yourself, think straight. You just breakdown. You don't work anymore.

I don't think I really remember much about the first 6 months I was in hospital. I have a few vague memories.

Please OP take this seriously. Or you could end up in hospital for a long time.

I’m sorry but that is not necessarily true. Different people experience mental health breakdowns in their own way so it is not accurate to write in a prescriptive manner and which could mislead readers.
If this is how it felt to you I completely understand that but please don’t state with certainty how others might feel.

You need to ring at 8am to get an urgent on the day appt.

I have had a severe one about a decade ago after I had a head injury and post concussion syndrome. All the symptoms of the head injury were horrendous, and every single symptom became more unbearable over the course of nearly 6 months to the point where my anxiety was extremely severe. At this stage, I literally didn't sleep at all for nearly a week, was pacing around the house loads, and at one point sat on my husband's lap and sobbed uncontrollably for 20 minutes in a state of total desperate despair.

I was prescribed a lot of strong psychotropic drugs that didn't work properly, then one off label antipsychotic called Pericyazine gave me a severe adverse reaction, and injured me permanently with a neurological involuntary movement disorder called tardive dyskinesia.

It was something so awful that I'd literally never ever want go have any more mental health problems that severe again. I was very suicidal at many points and am surprised I survived it to be honest.

I'm going through it now. I've had a very long period of stress and anxiety that's become worse over the last few months: crying often, palpitations, tightness in my chest and a feeling like someone is squeezing my throat, fainting/vertigo. Extreme anxiety when another work email comes in. Behavioural changes: I'm defensive, negative and paranoid. I don't want to do anything, I just want to be left alone. I thought taking some time off for half term would help, but instead I didn't get out of bed for a week because I didn't have to. My poor children.

I've been here before and I have insight into the fact that I'm not well. Please try to access help before you can't. I know it's difficult when you're already feeling overwhelmed.

Despite reaching out for help and having lots of support, I've started having periods of disassociation again. I'm just gone. I'm not here, I'm just... switched off I guess. I stare through things for hours sometimes. It's like my mind just couldn't take any more so it switched itself off to protect itself, and there's nothing I can do about it. Sometimes I'm vaguely aware of what's going on around me.

I remember a health visitor saying to me years ago "The next time you get like that, call the Crisis line." and I said "How?"

"How what?" "How do I call the Crisis line if I'm like that?"

She couldn't tell me! Because you can't, can you?? Make sure you've told people how unwell you are and that you need them to look out for signs and to act if they're worried. It can help to have a signal word or a symbol you can text because you might not be able to ask for help when you need to. Make sure they know that you're serious. I had a complete break with reality that last time and it's really scary. I wish you and everyone else on this thread who's struggling, the very best.

I feel the same. I was very lucky to survive. I made a couple of attempts before I was sectioned.