# what is a nervous breakdown ???



## jc (Aug 10, 2004)

is this term used to freely nowadays....i have a friend who had a breakdown and for two years his wife had to look after him...
now hes still quite wary about overdoing things but hes fine and we sometimes chat on the phone,but all he can tell me is one day it was snowing outside and he was found walking the streets,and he wasnt even able to clothe himself...
hes a very successful business man and it was the pressure of his work that made him crack,but he was never put into a hospital he just basically stayed at home for two years


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## Guest (Aug 22, 2004)

I like the term but it's really not used anymore.

It's basically a sudden onslaught of mental symptoms that are not caused by brain or neuorological damage. It's caused when the psychological defenses just crumble - due to stress, life events, poor defenses to begin with, inner change that is scary to the self, conflicts, mounting fears that one day become too much, etc...

But the term was basically replaced by "disorder" so now we have Anxiety Disorders, Obsessive Disorders, Depressive Disorders, etc....

In the olden days, grin, a person had a nervous breakdown and showed symptoms of anxiety or obsessions or depression or...whatever.

Most people would rather think they have a "disorder" than think their neurotic defenses couldn't cut it anymore.

Peace,
Janine


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## Guest (Aug 23, 2004)

i am a nervous breakdown


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## kenc127 (Aug 10, 2004)

I guess I have had a few of them :\


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## Guest (Aug 23, 2004)

Soul Brotha,
LOLOL...I swear, that is exactly how i used to feel.

I WAS a breakdown!


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## Guest (Aug 23, 2004)

yeah Janine as you know its a great feeling, hey btw Janine, ive been meaning to ask you, do you got a tatoo? cuz in your picture it looks like you have one? if so what is it?? you don't gotta answer if you don't want, i was just curious, i didn't picture you as the type of person to have one ( no offense lol)


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## Guest (Aug 23, 2004)

I got the tatoo after I recovered from my 20 year nervous breakdown, lol..

seriously, that's about right. I got it on my 40th birthday - it's an image of a little girl, wild and kind of dangerous looking, bursting through the skin of my upper arm, holding barbed wire and smiling kind of a smirk.

I drew it myself, brought it to a prominent tattoo artist in Woodstock NY, and she replicated it (took about 4 hours to do the process)

See? We just never know who's who by appearances, grin grin.

Yo snizzle.


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## Guest (Aug 23, 2004)

sounds like a dope tatoo there Janizzle


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## sebastian (Aug 11, 2004)

hmm...jc's "nervous breakdown" subject seems to have collapsed much more entirely than i have yet (ie. i still can dress myself, and don't yet wander the streets aimlessly). I wonder...is this version of a NB something that we have to look forward to?

s.


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## jc (Aug 10, 2004)

thats why i question this sometimes,as i somedays cant understand how i can possibly keep beating up my nervous system on a daily basis


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## gimpy34 (Aug 10, 2004)

Although I am a nervous wreck, I can't say I've ever had a nervous breakdown. Us with DP are probably too desensitized and naturally removed to even have a nervous breakdown.

This term is thrown around very loosely sometimes. People with real nervous breakdown's often will show psychotic symptoms and are removed from society until their brain recovers from all the stress. I hate it when people use this term and have no idea what a nervous breakdown really is. The same goes with panic attacks. I here people talk about how they had a panic attack when all they did was get really nevous. People with real panic attacks don't like talking about them, at least so publicly and openly.


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## Guest (Aug 24, 2004)

Hi, I thought that I too was about to have a nervous breakdown, when low and behold... I became depersonalized, so, no breakdown, unless that;s what it was. Then too I've had many episodes of hearing voices, seeing things that aren't there, (or are they?) Who knows? I sure don't know anything anymore. I'm taking so many drugs now that I wonder if I'll ever be able to come back from the breakdown.


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## Guest (Aug 24, 2004)

^ so your Schizophrenic?


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## jc (Aug 10, 2004)

SoulBrotha said:


> ^ so your Schizophrenic?


comeon man 
be kind,you cant make harsh statements like that without getting the facts,the poor girl is probably worried out of her mind right this minute now


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## jc (Aug 10, 2004)

alot of these meds can cause you to hear and see things,only yesterday i was talking to a neighbour and he was prescribed seroxat and he was seeing and hearing things


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## Guest (Aug 25, 2004)

JC WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT???

I ASKED HER IF SHE WAS SCHIZOPHRENIC

first off thats not even a statement its a question!! how is that harsh? im just wondering if she has schizophrenia, i don't see what the big deal is??? This is what i mean sometimes, people blow things way out of proportion. I ask a simple question & people think im being offensive. I want to know where in that question i disrespected her?????

someone give me an answer


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## Guest (Aug 25, 2004)

JC WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT???

I ASKED HER IF SHE WAS SCHIZOPHRENIC

first off thats not even a statement its a question!! how is that harsh? im just wondering if she has schizophrenia, i don't see what the big deal is??? This is what i mean sometimes, people blow things way out of proportion. I ask a simple question & people think im being offensive. I want to know where in that question i disrespected her?????

someone give me an answer


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## lone wolf (Aug 10, 2004)

Oh no, SoulBrotha, please don't shout - it doesn't feels nice...  I guess jc meant that asking a person is she schizophrenic is a kind of strong question. If one is in a miserable condition, one may be very sensitive to that kind of questions, as I'm pretty sure the person is questioning hir mental health even by hirself. By the way, if one is hearing and/or seeing things that aren't there, one can still enjoy perfect mental health. I know one person who does, and I could say I am a bit envious toward her - me too would be fascinated if I would be able to see Indian deities and other stuff like that sometimes. Well, I can also understand that seeing/hearing things can be distressing too - but in no way that means mental illness, if one does question hir condition at the same time and doesn't think what s/he is experiencing is perfectly true.


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## Guest (Aug 25, 2004)

so Ninnu your tellin me if someone is hearing voices & seeing things that aren't there, that there is still a chance that they are mentally healthy? I some how find that very hard to believe.

Peace


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## lone wolf (Aug 10, 2004)

SoutBrotha - yes I think so, as I know one person who keeps seeing and hearing things sometimes. She sees Indian deities and other mythic stuff, and is fascinated because of them, but at the same time she knows what she experiences are just visions. She is full capable to work and do the other mundane tasks in her everyday life, and that's why I am convinced that hearing and seeing things only doesn't mean one is mentally ill in every case. One thing that makes the difference is how one sees those experiences, does s/he embrace them fully and think s/he's enlightened, or does s/he see them only as special hallucinations. It is not the one who hallucinates, but it is the question does those hallucinations lead one's life and make one believe in them - in that case one is truely psychotic. But if one knows they are just hallucinations - in that case one has only a special kind of vivid imagination, I think.


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## jc (Aug 10, 2004)

SoulBrotha said:


> ^ so your Schizophrenic?


that wasnt a question that was an assumption,im just thinking back to how you felt about your posts in the past when you thought you were going insane or had some horrific disease of the mind...
people were very honest and supportive and im sure back then if you maybe said a few things about your current state and someone said

so your insane then?

youd have gone into a frenzy


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## lone wolf (Aug 10, 2004)

I am with jc - indeed one should be very sensitive considering replying here, I think. I have noticed many people are afraid of insanity/mental illness here in this forum, and this should be kept in mind, when replying - it is better preferring to gentle replies instead of quick, thoughtless assumptions. I mean no offense, though...


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## jc (Aug 10, 2004)

soulbrotha im not personally attacking you mate,so i hope we can hi 5 and stay friends


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## Guest (Aug 26, 2004)

sometimes i wish i would just have a totaly nervouse brakedown so they can put me in a hospital. this week i have had thoughts of going to my boyfriend and asking him to take me to a hopital..but i guess im not that far yet


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## Guest (Aug 26, 2004)

> sometimes i wish i would just have a totaly nervouse brakedown so they can put me in a hospital.


Don't I know it! I feel like i've been living the past years in anticipation of whatever the fuck---I guess a nervous breakdown----

I just wish whatever, "impending doom," I am waiting for would happen already!


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## Dreamer (Aug 9, 2004)

Have visited the trusty...
http://people.howstuffworks.com

Looked up the definition of "nervous breakdown" way back -- hope this 
clarifies somewhat. Forgive spelling errors.

*"In the Middle Ages, it was called melancholia. In the early 1900s it 
was known as neurasthenia. From the 1930s to about 1970, it was known 
as a nervous breakdown.

'Nervous breakdown' is a term that the public uses to characterize a range of mental illnesses, but generally it describes the experience of 'snapping' under immense pressure, mental collapse or mental and physical exhaustion.

'Nervous Breakdown' is not a clinical term. There is no psychiatric 
definition of a nervous breakdown, and it has nothing to do with 
nerves. 'Nervous Breakdown' is an inexact and unscientific term that 
is no longer used in psychiatry. Much as modern medicine breaks down 
diseases into more specific definitions (not just 'cancer' but 'stage 1 
ovarian cancer'), modern psychiatry is breaking the term 'Nervous 
Breakdown' into more precise diagnoses."*

Etc.................

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D's understanding of it:
In essense it is a layperson's term. It's used by lay people as a euphemism as there is such stigma attached to ANY mental illness. The term "nervous breakdown" is vague enough to not frighten the relatives? ACH life is complicated and frequently sad.

Best,
L'Hairball :shock:


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