Severe nervous breakdown - can you fully recover

[Ronnie2022]

It’s been 3months since my dp and a a sudden and severe breakdown.

is on meds , having therapy but seems to be getting worse (the Psych has tweaked meds. )

any light at end of tunnel ? Thanks!

It happened to me nearly 10 years ago. When I think about it, I don't know how I got through it. It was stress induced had a lot going on. Looking after a family member in hospital everyday. Then bam.i didn't go on any meds but left the country for a year to a slower pace of living and had natural 'meds'. I would say after about 4 months I started seeing the light. But when it first happened it was going on for about 4 months before I left. Now nearly 10 yrs later I feel fine. But it was easily the.hardest thing I've had to go through in my life. And without my family's support I most definitely would not be here. I hope your dp makes a full recovery

@MadamMaltesers I'm sure evidence based meds would've helped you more than natural 'meds.'

@porridgeisbae definitely but I wasn't really in the right mind to choose at the time

I have been there and can confirm there is light. Things will likely be different. But they can definitely improve. GL

Omg yes the physical symptoms are horrendous for him
three years jeez poor you (

how did you emerge ?

and different I can imagine totally (

Thank you all xx

How are things going, @Ronnie2022? For you both as a pair, and each of you separately. Has anything got worse or better in the past two weeks?

Aw thanks garlic - I just sent u a pm xx

I am thinking of writing a book about my breakdown and how I over came it and other stuff. Do you think it would help anyone? If it was published I'd probably give some money to Mind, one of my favourite charities.

How are you and DH doing @Ronnie2022 ?

I'm reading this thread with interest as my mental health has been in the toilet of & on for the past 7 years - well, all my life really, but it was 7 years ago I was first diagnosed and started on the road to recovery. I've had mini crises in that time but been largely functional. However, I'm in the middle of my biggest breakdown yet and am also wondering if I'll ever come out the other end. I've realised that I can't go back to the 'old me' as that was built on faulty thinking so I've essentially got to rebuild myself with new coping strategies.
I'm on medication and having intense therapy, and I'm ashamed to say this latest episode has involved some addiction issues which I'm working through. I haven't worked for over a year now and can't see me being able to any time soon.

Hi all - sorry I have been away from this so long.

so, update - dp has found an amazing counsellor and is making progress I feel. Much more stable and ‘himself’. But it’s slow work and he is rebuilding basically.

it all feels more positive than a couple of months ago and doesn’t feel like we are iN crisis now but a long road ahead.

sending love to those who are struggling and yes think writing about your experience would be wonderfull helpful for others @tulipdaisypopps

Glad he's improving @Ronnie2022 . These things do take time xx

So glad to read that there are glimpses of hope op x

Thanks both.

I think the thing I am struggling with (to my shame really) is that part of me thinks he chose this to happen and why would he now when we’ve been so happy. (

wishing you the very best xxxx

I think the thing I am struggling with (to my shame really) is that part of me thinks he chose this to happen and why would he now when we’ve been so happy

You know no one would choose something this severe OP. x

No of course not . It’s just so hard to comprehend sometimes xx

hi all - welll dp is probably as bad if not worse than when I first posted .

so worried for him , he seems stuck in a terrible place . No meds or counselling have as yet helped and it is 18 months on.

(

Yes, but everyone is different, and everyone comes through it at different rates. I went through what would have been called a severe nervous breakdown pre-COVID - lots of complex PTSD to process plus the menopause. Luckily I had a fabulous friend who helped me come through it who now, ironically, needs support themselves which I am happy to give as far as I possibly can.

While he has to go through much of this himself, ultimately, please do reach out to all the excellent suggestions on this thread so you can support him as you would like to; you sound like a lovely partner.

I will say I certainly found out who my friends were when I was ill (and it wasn't my family). I am much stronger now, but I never would have believed I would go through it so severely, I'd always been able to bounce back. Until suddenly, one day, I couldn't. The first support worker I was assigned was, frankly, rubbish; a social worker who was leaving the country in three weeks time and just couldn't be a*sed. I then spent a week in the local psychiatric ward, which was astonishingly helpful, and was then assigned to a brilliant CPN who understood first hand what depression can do, so don't give up.

Sending you both the very best of wishes to come through this.

@NoPowerInTheVerse thank you for your kind words and honesty. It really gives me hope. Just feel so so bad for him , he’s just tormented . I just do what I can to help (but it doesn’t really ‘help’)
he also has cptsd which is so so hard to move through isn’t it ?

I’m ao glad you had your friend xx

Oh Ronnie I'm so sorry it's still so hard. I'm one of the original posters above. ( but name changed a while ago for new threads. I felt I'd posted quite a lot of identifying details of me /dh. ).

We are three years in now.

I've recently tried to sort out counselling. I joined a useful support network via work of other carers. I've started some medication myself which has helped a lot. I hope maybe you can try counselling? Do you feel like a carer? Sorry this is a bit jumbled. I'm still recovering too really, but much better since maybe march when I joined a gym, started the medication.

I'm still dissociated from dh.

Hi - I PM’d you hope that’s ok x

Yes, possible. Hard work, difficult, painful, but it can be done.

I spent 6 months inpatient in one stretch and 4 in another, and it has taken YEARS of fight back but now it's "just" a "chronic illness" (this is how i frame it, not how medical professionals talk about it). I work, have a pretty high achieving career etc.

Unless I told you, or you saw some of the physical after effects, you would never know.

Hi OP. Sorry to hear he's not doing so well.

I have complex PTSD linked to childhood trauma. I haven't been hospitalised, but I've come close several times.

What you said about, "why now, when we're so happy" really resonated with me. My really major breakdown came when things were going well for me, after years spent very much in "survival" mode. I think it was only once I had some financial security and a secure relationship that I had the headspace to properly break down and start dealing with it. It's been a long process. Antidepressants and other meds helped stabilise me a bit, and EMDR was very helpful. After that, I did some counselling to work on beliefs about myself.

I did have a period out of work, but am now working again, and probably the most "functional" I've been at any point in my adult life. It's been bloody hard work though!