What is a Nervous Breakdown? | Is it a mental disorder?

This video answers the question: What is a nervous breakdown? Does the construct of a nervous breakdown have diagnostic value? The term nervous breakdown is used in the popular culture and is considered a colloquial. Most mental health counselors do not interpret the term as having any diagnostic value, however, a study looking at this term found that it does align with several technical terms and mental disorders used by clinicians.

Rapport, L. J., Todd, R. M., Lumley, M. A., & Fisicaro, S. A. (1998). The Diagnostic Meaning of “Nervous Breakdown” Among Lay Populations. Journal of Personality Assessment, 71(2), 242.

[SweetBlackSistah]

Excellent explaination Doc.
I bet a lot of people suffered this with narcissistic abuse.
I did.
Those devils literally make you lose your mind.

[attheranch]

I always thought of a nervous break down as referring to when someone had gotten to the point where they couldn’t function because they couldn’t take it anymore. Whatever IT is.

[stevenhair]

Thank you doctor. I am sure this happened to me when my dog died. I cried more in 30 days than my entire 50 years combined. For a few hours I was begging God to give her back to me. Very unrealistic expectation. For some reason, I think I really needed to go thru this.

[elisamastromarino]

I know someone who had a nervous breakdown after losing her daughter. She never recovered and has never been the same. She just stopped eating and had to be hospitalized. Since then she has remained in a depressed state with a flat affect most of the time. All of the bubbly effervesence she once had is gone.
I find this to be a sad, but necessary topic.
Thank you Dr Grande. I think you spelled that out quite well. 🌹👍

[Rahel]

I had a “nervous breakdown” it was so scary due to prolonged narcissistic abuse. I am not experiencing any symptoms now over one year no contact. It was the scariest experience I ever went through besides near death. To me the symptoms were sever panic attacks, loss of reality, short term paranoia, extreme anxiety loss of appetite and crying and a general overall impending doom feeling following extreme exhaustion, physical full body trembling dizziness and wanting to be alone and self isolation and thoughts of suicide and fears of a reoccurring panic attack in the future.
If you realize your defiantly in a relationship with a narcissist you can escape you can heal you can have a new life and you will feel happy and love again. You will have your joy back when you just accept your not the problem solver and your worthy of a healthy life. Side bar: my timing belt just fell of my van and I had to abandon my vehicle tonight and fix it once the parts store opens tomorrow, it’s so funny you used that analogy ;)

[judiroth]

Thank you for helping me to understand what my daughter suffered when she had a breakdown. She used to telephone me telling me she couldn’t live anymore. She did it so often that I moved from Florida up to Vermont in order to take care of her. When I saw her, she would break out into sobbing, shaking and sobbing uncontrollably. I am shaking, could not be left alone and followed me from room to room, again, breaking out with sobbing. I could not find a local psychiatrist in Vermont to see her. I wound up going to the emergency psychiatric facility at Dartmouth Hitchcock Hospital in Lebanon New Hampshire where they took her immediately. She had a kid anxiety and depression and treated her with Clonopin and Effexor. It took One year for her to regain some control. It took many more years for her to be able to enter a store with me, or be among people, or to be left alone. 20 years later she still has anxiety and is on medication but thank goodness she no longer wants to die to escape her anxiety and depression. Thank you so much, Dr. Grande. Your videos and podcasts are incredibly satisfying, interesting and understandable . the sound of your voice is extremely comforting. I so appreciate your not talking down to your listeners. Please continue with your work and thank you for sharing your knowledge with us.

[enfieldli]

When you are overwhelmed by anxiety or misfortune, you should take a step back, knowing the fact that you have had similar experiences before and you know that you made it through. Believe in yourself, and nothing will stand in your way.

[YourNay]

Definitely with this pandemic and a lot of other personal stressors going on, I had an intense panic attack mid July that had me in fight or flight for months. Developed anxiety and panic disorder that left my nervous system extremely sensitized. Now I’m slowly but surely healing but it’s the toughest battle of my life: not sure if this ties in as a nervous breakdown but it’s definitely affected my nervous system. God bless every and anyone going thru this. You’re stronger than you think

[RaysDad]

My understanding of a "nervous breakdown differs slightly from the description in the article. Certainly the nervous breakdown is triggered by stress, but the duration of the stress reaction may or may not be "time-limited." Someone might have a nervous breakdown and never return to full function, or the breakdown may make the person more likely to have another. Also, the person having the nervous breakdown may or may not have a prior mental disorder. A prior mental disorder may make a person more vulnerable to a nervous breakdown.

[BA-efpr]

While in the ER for an anxiety attack due to direct report who was a bully, the Dr advised that I leave that company if I wanted to survive. Within 3 months, I had a complete breakdown that lasted a year, now understood as 'adjustment disorder'. The medical community needs to be more aware, like this ER Dr, to advise us because, at the moment, we are only able to focus on breathing, and we don't do that well either. I have only found a solution to stay home in my safe space until I am well enough to venture back out in the world. This video contents should be blasted so more people are aware of the terminology.

[blairpenney]

After my home burned down, I thought that I was having a nervous breakdown, I was feeling an amplified sense of overwhelming stress, that seemed to scramble my thought process for a brief period. I agree, being a mechanically minded person myself, It was like having a bunch of mixed up pieces, & not knowing how to reassemble them. It was my most stressful experience.

[johnpaul]

Inability to cope. Inability to function. Hysteria. Regression. Maybe an inability to care for oneself. Temporary. These are a few of the "descriptors" that passed through my mind as I watched your video. As I recall, dimly, it was, many years ago, a fearful term; more like a colloquial word for a psychotic break. Screaming, the "men in the white coats, " straight- jackets, "mental hospitals." And it was socially stigmatized. These days, my sense is that it's been almost normalized--as in: everyone deserves one; as soon as the rush is over, I'm going to take mine, etc.
Edit: I wanted to say something about "creative illness, " a term I think originated with Freud or Jung, but I don't know enough about it (although I have read Jung's autobiographical writings, "Memories, Dreams, and Reflections" more than once, and so I know that he had an EXTRAORDINARILY creative approach to his nervous breakdown, or whatever it was). I try to approach my problems, small and large, creatively, and I think all of us should. We should study our problems; do something with them, make something of them, include them in our life's work. Sometimes a breakdown is more than just a breakdown; it's an opportunity, a door, a portal into all we've been missing.

[leaperrins]

Whilst I understood that a nervous breakdown isn't a term used now, I always assumed it was a term used years ago by doctors. My mother had what she always described as a nervous breakdown 40 years ago and I'm sure she said this is what the doctors told her that she had experienced. Although something could have been lost in translation here.

My mother wandered out of a supermarket without paying for her shopping, but when confronted, the staff realised something was seriously wrong with her. Luckily they called the authorities who admitted her to hospital and took my sister and I into care. My mother was experiencing catatonic depression, suffered with dry eyes (because she hardly blinked) and an inability to feel pain. She said that it would take ages for her to light a cigarette but then she would just let it burn down to her fingers and she wouldn't even feel it. She had to re learn even simple things like making a cup of tea (which left her exhausted afterwards) and spent two years in a psychiatric ward.

I know that she experienced severe panic attacks at some point in those two years also but that's about the extent of my knowledge. Unfortunately she still wasn't very well when she was released and I was returned to her. She never seemed to fully recover mentally and had severe depressive episodes for the rest of her life. Apparently, she was a fun loving, bright and enthusiastic person until her 'breakdown.' I wonder how differently things may have turned out if she was treated nowadays.

Although the saddest part is that she was left on her own with two children and no support, meaning no one noticed how ill she had become to begin with. She weighed 6 stone when she wandered out of the supermarket as she had stopped eating, so there were physical signs too. It speaks to how we really do need to take care of each other as a community and how damaging isolation can really be.

[patrickhanson]

I have heard the same echo that breakdowns are just natures way of saying.... oops what you have been doing for a while is just not working and your brain flips the switch for you. It can be a good turning point if does not result in more chaos.

[blackrussian]

i had a nervous breakdown & feel the term captures what happened. i simply melted. I could no longer function. i left work and was never able to return in any meaningful way. i flopped on the couch for 18 months and it was all i could do to get my kids to school and many days I couldn't even do that. I've never been the same since when before I used to be the quintessential multitasking single parent high profile career woman who 'had' & 'did' it all. i was subsequently invalidity retired out of work at 40 when i could not keep either a government job down or one at a laundromat

[SporadicUploads]

The comment you made in the video about how much more stressful it would be to think about ALL of the steps of changing a timing belt at once, instead of just one step at a time is really helpful to me thanks.

[carriemedina]

Thank you again for a very clear, informative and helpful explanation. key word for me is"overwhelmed." A word that I am sure resounds with many in our fast -paste society.

[vanessasouthern]

My new favourite channel!! I’ve just learned something new. Thanks! 😊Adjustment Disorder. I had a ‘nervous breakdown’ and was sectioned. This followed years of psychological abuse and then my father died and my ex boyfriend commit suicide. I just couldn’t cope and my brain malfunctioned. My mind couldn’t process any more pain.

[thebarky]

I grew up hearing this term. I thought of it as someone not able to function usually relating to was was termed Axis I such as depression, anxiety, or panic. The key is that someone cannot function day to day.

[amandaengelman]

All the reading I've done on psychiatric disorders, and I've never heard of adjustment disorder. I'm diagnosed and being treated for ADHD and anxiety, but adjustment disorder perfectly describes what I'm feeling. I've always equated nervous breakdowns with panic attacks, which I have fairly regularly. I'll be discussing this with my ARNP at my next appointment.