What are the symptoms of "having a nervous breakdown?"

[nighbynight]

Because I seem to be having something.

Not depressed, but suddenly feel that work is too difficult and challenging (Ive been doing the job for 4 years), keep forgetting stuff, keep saying the wrong words, so that my sentences dont make sense, and keep making small misjudgements, eg in driving. Feel terribly hungry, and weight is yoyoing up and down daily.
I actually did not go to work yesterday or today, because I couldn't get myself together.

All this is so not me. And as I am hourly paid and freelance, I cant take time off for stress, so must deal with it myself.

does anyone recognise this description, or have any tips??

(I have no dp/dh to take the pressure off.)

It could be depression/anxiety rather than a breakdown as such. I experience this when I'm going back down into a dip. Verbal and physical clumsiness. Panic. The inability t cope with the simplest things. Have you been depressed before?

there isn't really such a thing as a nervous breakdown - more a case of mental illness reaching a debilitating level. may be worth a trip to GP and getting bloods checked for anaemia and/or thyroid problems. are you getting enough food/sleep etc? as it sounds more of a physical then mental issue to me tbh.

It can also be to do with physical health. Peri-menopause and diabetes can both cause all these symptoms.

Time for a visit to the GP, I think.

I could have written this as this is how I have been feeling on and off. I was wondering, in my case, if it is linked to PMT as it seems to go up and down. I have always been a coper but recently had a series of 'breakdowns' in the loosest sense of the word as I felt I couldn't cope. Sorry this is not helpful to you, but I will be watching with interest.

Thank you for answers.
Total - I guessed that it is not a medical term, but I wondered what my parents generation meant when they would say "she had a nb".
I have had mental symptoms before, which have had a physical basis, so yes, I would be looking for a physical cause.

Orm I was depressed for around 10 years, but I have been better for ca 15 years and all I can say, is that this is different. I dont feel at all miserable, no grief, or feeling that things can never get better.

PC - Bah. It could be the peri-menopause. I have started having PMT for the first time in years, even getting spots.
I am only 42, my mother didnt get the menopause til her mid 50s, so I had hoped for a few more years.

Babbit - yes, you've described it exactly.

I am a single mother of 4, and a foreigner where I live, so am not keen to go to the doctor and say "my main symptom is that I cant cope with my life any more!" in case they bring SS into it.

I guess I could emphasise the PMT, and teh verbal clumsiness instead.
We have been living here for 3,5 years, and I have not been to a doctor yet, I dont know a good one!

Ditto me, nighbynight - 42 and PMT returned. I emphasised to the GP that I had had PND before and that this felt very different. She did loads of blood tests, expecting it to be an underactive thyroid, but checking other things as well, and was quite surprised at the results.

HRT has turned my life around.

nighby - my second excursion into ad's was due to similar symptoms to those you mention. The first was for more 'sad' depression. I don't think there is one way to be 'depressed'.

BTW I am also menopausal. In fact I think I may be over that now as I've had no period since October.

Thank you very much for sharing your experiences.
I haven't ruled out depression, but at the moment I am tending towards thinking that it's menopausal

I am not sure that I can manage 2-3 days per month of falling apart, should it happen again. It might affect my job.

I am a bit at HRT. Isn't it effectively taking a dose of hormones - what happens when you go off them one day?
How long do you expect to take them? aren't they bad for your health?

Does everyone have HRT these days?

Sorry, I hope you dont think the questions are too intrusive - as you can see, I dont have a clue about HRT - just watched that episode of Birds of a Feather once where Dorian took HRT, thats about all I know about it

No I don't think everyone does take it. If you go and see your GP they will offer it. ATM I am taking agnus castus as I've been recommended it here. Nothing to report as yet.

There are pros and cons to every treatment. Some people are vehemently against HRT and try to treat menopausal symptoms with natural remedies. Yes, absolutely there is a place for this attitude.

It is proven, however, that HRT helps prevent or reduce osteo-porosis, whereas there is no such evidence for natural therapies. If you start your menopause early, you are at risk of developing a greater degree of osteoporosis than if you started 5-10 years later.

HRT may increase your risk of various health problems. May even double or treble it. Sounds terrible? Not really - the increased risk is somthing like 1 in 1000 instead of 1 in 3000. Besides, the increase in risk varies according to age. So, for example, a 40yo taking HRT has very little increase in risk compared to a 50yo taking HRT.

It's not clear yet, but it is thought that there is a limit to how long you can safely take HRT. But that limit refers to time taking post-menopausal HRT. Taking HRT before you stop ovulating completely does not seem to count towards this limit.

And a crucial factor in my decision to take HRT was that I could not cope. I have 3 dc, the youngest was 2yo. Now is not the time for me to have to cope with hideous mood-swings, panic attacks, forgetfulness and poor judgement!

I don't mind you asking questrions. I thought I was fairly knowledgeable, until I started researching menopause - then I felt like I did when pregnant for the first time: O. M. G.

Thank you, PrettyCandles. My problem is the same; I am the breadwinner, and have 4 children, youngest is six. I can't afford not to be able to cope, and the last 2 days have been scarey.
I will have to do a lot of research about this, I think. Right now, I am just scared of having a car accident.

I didn't answer all your questions.

I expect I will continue to take HRT for about 10y, until I can expect my natural menopause to have happened. By then more will be known about the risks/benefits of long-term HRT. I may stay on it, or I may come off. If I do come off, I think can expect to go through the menopause, with all the delightful symptoms, but do so very quickly. So if I come off HRT, that's when I will try natural therapies like agnus castus.

Hopefully by then life will not be as, shall we say, 'challenging' as it is now, and I will be able to allow myself the luxury of going spectacularly to pieces. Just temporarily, of ocurse, and then I'll suddenly turn into a Glamorous Greyhound. [snort!]

Pretty Candles - sorry to jump in here - but just wondered - when you mention panic attacks / mood swings etc. Did you only notice these around PMT time or were they fairly constant. And when you started the HRT - did they just magically disappear - or was it a more gradual process.

I originally had PND - and my GP is questioning whether a current issue has possible peri menopausal links or thyroid. She has suggested a thyroid check but not a hormone check (although not sure there is actually such a thing|???)

Sorry to hijack your thread nightbynight. x

I didn't notice any connection between PMT and panic attacks or any other peri-menopause symptoms.

There are several female hormone checks that can be done. I don't remember which one I had, but the first test showed it at too high a level for my age. The GP wanted to check further, so she sent me for an ultra-sound, and then a repeat blood test. To her surprise - but not to mine - the scan showed that I was ovulating, and the blood test came back normal. The reason I was not surprised was that I had just had a very good month, during which I'd had my first normal period in months, had had virtually no flushes or panic attacks, and had felt competent and emotionally functioning. In the week before the GP appointment, the hot flushes came back with a vengeance, and the panic attacks resumed, too. Also much worse than before.

This, together with my other normal test results, convinced her, but she didn't want to start me on HRT until I had a Mirena inserted. During this delay things got even worse. I remember one awful day when I had 6 panic attacks.

Within two or three weeks of going onto HRT the flushes and the panic attacks had reduced in intensity and frequency, and I was sleeping so much better. Everything has continued to improve. I still get a bit of PMT, I still get the occasional mild flush, and the occasional feeling of causeless anxiety. I could take a higher dose, but my GP has asked me to wait until I've been at least 6m on this dose as there have been no side-effects and it may continue to improve.

Thanks pretty candles - thats really useful info x

I felt like this when my blood pressure medication was wrong

PrettyCandles - just had a search to find if you had wriiten anything else about peri menopause (not stalking you honestly!!! . And just found your comments on a thread about depression being a side effect of the mirena coil.

I am - my GP has been trying to persuade me to have one fitted to help with heavy periods. She knows about my history since PND and I specifically asked her about any side effects of depression or anxiety and she said no - definately not !!!!

nighbynight.
Could it be stress?
I was like this when I had to take some time off work due to stress.
Was worse when PMT.
AM havinga particulasrly bad bout of PMT right now, cannot find caar keys, cant get my words out, am pretty rubbsh and tearful, hoping it will pass.
Sounds like you have a lot on your plate. One person can only do so much.

Yes, every dr I've spoken to about Mirena has denied that depression can be a side-effect, yet the patient info leaflet mentions it. At first I felt very about it, but, given my own experience I wonder whether it was a benign sort of misinformation. I, too, have a history of PND, and at first my symptoms led to a diagnosis of depression. I was lucky that I found a GP willing to consider other possibilities, and who accepted mys tatement that this felt different to my previous bout of depresssion.

Some women with no history of depression have depressive problems with the Mirena, most don't. I had one sharp and vicious bout of depression, that we are pretty sure was a side-effect, and nothing major since. If anything, treating the hormonal problems has made me realise and come to terms with the fact that I do have depression, and that it is nothing to do with the Mirena or my hormones.

Anyway, what I was getting at earlier is that if you have a history of depression, and expect a downswing to occur, it probably will. Whereas if you expect to feel better, you probably will feel better. D'you see what I mean?

lol at booking the menopause when your life's hopefully a bit quieter. Sounds like a good idea to me.

I went to a doctor today, and she diagnosed stress as soon as she heard that I have 4 children. This is a typical German attitude, as they think 2 children is a big family, and many mothers don't work at all, round here.

I am not happy with this diagnosis though, because loads of people have busy lives and don't get ill, so why should I? there must be a reason. Same as when I was in my teens/20s and had depression and a candida infection in the gut - other people did A levels and went to uni, and they didnt get ill, so why should I?
I cant afford to take unpaid time off, to treat the symptoms, I want to know the cause.