i hear so many people say "im having a breakdown" or something of that nature. i even say it myself. but i dont really know what it means to myself or anyone else.
so im just wondering....if YOU think youre having a "breakdown", what does it involve?
may be a weird or silly question but im just confused.
For me. When my capacity to deal with emotional input has become overwhelmed and my nervous system gets overloaded beyond my ability to cope. It's where I have done or thought things on a consistent basis over an extended period of time that in my 'normal' state of mind I wouldn't think and do - and cannot properly hold onto a sense of reality checking that it's not rational or whatever. It's when I have a sense of myself fragmenting and falling apart - this is felt physically. Anxiety and hyper-vigilance peaks to a severe level. It's when I find it extremely painful to impossible to be around other people, and to do whatever I need to do to get by in life. I've had one particularly severe breakdown, before I was in treatment. And several others that have been just as frightening and debilitating, but have had less impact on my ability to at least go through the motions of life routine.
I prefer the 'old fashioned' terminology of breakdown to severe depressive episode, or PTSD breakdown or psychotic break.
for me it's being emotionally out of control, luckily that usually only lasts a few hours/ a couple of days, but during that time I am overwhelmed with pain and hopelessness and unable to focus on anything else.
for me, it's when I'm unable to control my intense emotions to the extent I shout, cry, crumple up in a little heap and these feelings take precedent over anything else I "need" to do, such as work and socialising.
honestly- i have no idea what the defination of a nervous breakdown is. however, to me...for me.. ig uess it would consist of meotional turmoil, chaos with stress and high anxiety inside and out, panic attacks..
however, ive never used the term in relation to myself as i am honesty not sure of its true meaning. Hiding
I'd say to me it means when i've got to the stage where i'm beyond my ability to cope with whatever emotional turmoil/stresses i'm in, when i get to the point that i can no longer properly function as a member of society, then that to me is a breakdown.
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I think last time I looked into this sort of question, I found the answer to be an attack of anxiety or depression that prevents a person from continuing to function normally.
Its not a phase I use often, but when I do, I tend to put it for when I really really cant do something, no matter how important it is. For example, I had a form to fill in and if it wasnt in by the next day, I would lose a lot of money and have to quit uni. I just could not do it, no matter how hard I tried due to my mental health at the time. I wasnt doing any of the normal things, like washing and getting up.
Not until i started my volunteer work last year did anyone ever say the word breakdown to me. the butcher asked if i had a nervous breakdown and i immediately said no. I came home really upset and looked it up on titnternet. I found there is no actual diagnoses. Its more a term used O_0.
Anyways since then its been fired around at me more than once and ive now found myself using it as i feel less stigmatized by it now.
For me it was basically when my world stopped. Life as i once knew it and experienced it ended! I ceased to function on a physical and emotional level. Chronic depression and anxiety set in. For the first 6 months i couldnt do a thing. I couldnt open mail or answer the phone. I couldnt pay bills or look after my own affairs. I wasnt washing or cleaning or anything really. I was simply living a life of minimal subsistance.
It has only been during recovery and subsequent rehabilitation that i now realise i had completely broken down. It scares/scared the **** out of me.
5 years of my life totally gone! I really hope i get it back!!!!
~Phoenix~ is my Little Sister of Awesomeness and Self-Delusion :P Bitter Angel is my Mitten Animad is my Top Trump All Im Living For - Is my beautiful and special daughter who isnt called Kim but will moan if i dont add her :P
I would say that a 'breakdown' is when you cannont funtion day to day. Obvioulsy major depression is involved. But you have no mental clariy, very hopeless and lost. A loss of sanity.
You - yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.
Mental breakdown (also known as nervous breakdown or snapping) is a non-medical term used to describe an acute, time-limited phase of a specific disorder that presents primarily with features of depression or anxiety.Rapport LJ, Todd RM, Lumley MA, Fisicaro SA. ... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nervous_Breakdown
For me it's when I am so completely overwhelmed with depression/anxiety/stress that I can't live my life. I physically can't get out of my bed, can't think, can't eat, won't shower or get changed. I just lay there in the dark.
For me, a breakdown is when I am so overwhelmed with depression, anxiety, SI and thoughts of suicide that I am not functioning in life and can no longer be trusted to keep myself safe and alive. A breakdown is always accompanied by a hospital stay.
I have to agree with most everyone else - the main symptom for me is feeling like I can't function in doing even the most menial tasks. I also find myself having problems convincing myself that "this is just a blip, things will get better, but it's going to take a bit of time." rational me knows that's true; breakdown me probably knows it too, but is just too overwhelmed and depressed to see past it.
"And I know it aches, and your heart it breaks,
You can only take so much
Walk on..."
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