Nervous Breakdown

What do you think is the modern day version of this? I remember my mom telling me (when I was a child) that a friend had a "nervous breakdown" and couldn't go to work. I always pictured the poor man running around crazy and shaking with bulging eyes. I think now maybe the poor guy was just stressed out and needed some rest, thus it being a good thing that this phrase disappeared.

 

Maybe its a silent nervous breakdown? Acting as if things are normal,don't know.

 

Maybe Silent, Maybe Loud ?
In the over-arching manipulative control system in place today, it may be labelled/diagnosed/ many different things
from
mild depression or anxiety (anything stress related) , to bpolr or shzofrainia or multiple personalities.
Simple rest and nutrition, peace and contentment, is rarely if ever offered or achieved, eh ?

 

It can be devastating sometimes. I may have had one years ago,not.

 

I've had nervous breakdowns, I suppose. - mostly, periods of depression so deep that I was immobilized. Thankfully these faded off over the years.

 

John, thanks for the thought. It's painful to watch your own failing abilities progress. It happens to everyone, I suppose, so I can't claim special complaints.

 

I have experienced a lot of stress decades past but once past 30 I was pretty much back to being normal. I always loved working and it kept me focused on all the right things. I still managed to drift around a lot and see and do things most people don't do or see, at least during a work week. I loved driving the interstate back and fourth to California during the 70s because it was empty except brief periods of being in morning and evening traffic. There was nothing like standing in the shade in Phoenix after filling my tank. I could just stand there and smell the nice clean air and take in all the sites at the same time. I became so keen on my route that I could actually name towns looking out the window of a commercial airplane. I sat next to one guy in the early 80s and told him to look out the window that it was El Paso, he acted amazed that I simply knew El Paso from the air. Things have changed so much now but I still think I could pick out all those little towns on I-10 and eventually 8. So I watched these places for decades and each trip things had started changing, like bypass s from the main streets that were once just a slow drive down a nice little main street. There was one air conditioned bar at the very west end of Gila Bend and I would stop there on my way back to Houston and have a drink and use the outside pay phone. My last trip was from Nevada back to Houston after having been gone for almost 20 years, it was my final trip and I had my two dogs in the truck with me. The old dog was sick and I had to lift her in and out of the Truck. We stopped at a Burger King at the I-10 and Interstate 8 in Arizona. I had a lawn chair in the back of my truck and I sat there under a shade tree while the dogs stretched and had their breakfast. Later I came into Llano Tx 90 miles west of El Paso, I pulled off the Interstate and found a little picnic area that the entrance would sometimes be flooded when the river was high, I could hear the river flowing but you couldn't see it due to the trees and really I was so tired I didn't feel up to climbing over barbed wire fences. So we packed up again and took off and went a few miles further to the main turn off for Llano and the old bridge I knew well back in the 70s. My old dog was laying down and when I crossed the bridge she could smell the water and she got up and stuck her head out taking in the clean air. I felt good because she was gone a year and a half later, it was good to get her home again. I buried her in a nice little family pet cemetery family friends had on their property. It was a beautiful tree d area with a little pond near. I had one left when I came back to where I live now and she didn't last much longer, really surprised me because she was always pretty healthy. Now I spend all my time just doing what I want, I stay busy making little games and drinking coffee. Today I enjoyed a couple showers but it seems to be gone now. Supposed to get cold tonight after the front clears. I have ran air for two days and the overhead fan all night. Life is good...

 

Nervous breakdown is a misnomer if ever there was one. Heaven help those whose nerves actually break down. ALS is one example of that. But, when we refer to it as a mental or psychological disruption, that is a different kettle of fish. There are so many factors which cause us to function in a normal manner within society circles. The causative factors are legion and often lead to being misdiagnosed. Introspection into what is creating chaos within us is vital in most cases and it is not shameful to seek out professional help in reaching for the reasons. Of course PTSD is usually rather simple to diagnose on its surface, but often there is so much more to it.

Thomas Stillhere seems to have been able to work through his malfunctioning factors rather nicely and I congratulate him. Others need a bit more help.

I also read where some have had brief moments of what is considered normal function and gotten through it all. I know I have and most of us have at one time or another.

When it is obvious that a person is in real trouble, suicidal, alcoholic, excessive drug usage, asocial behavior, just to mention a few, then an intervention is called for and urging the individual to seek help quite seriously is in order.

If at times you feel low and the world is terribly bleak, do not panic. It's external factors that are generally responsible and these to shall pass.

 

Many years ago, I had what was called - on the verge of a breakdown. For me that meant pure mental meltdown. I physically took it out on my washing machine, trying to beat the waning life out of a piece of metal. Black and blue wrists and hands proved I needed some help. No judgement , please long story. As usual I healed myself

 

Heidi, the washing machine is a great place to take your frustrations out on! After all the years of washing clothes for 5 of us, I too, feel like beating up the darn thing !

 

Thankfully, you had sense enough not to take it out on a human being. I've destroyed a few inanimate objects as well in my lifetime.

 

It's about having coping mechanisms to deal with stress. I used booze and running. Booze was only temporary relief but it was good to have that escape hatch even if you got hungover. It was always there. Running produced endorphins which gave a sense of well being. You need an "out". I use neither now since my level of stress is pretty low.