A nervous breakdown is characterized by prolonged, impairing feelings of being overwhelmed, anxiety, and stress, even in the absence of stressors, which affect one’s daily functioning. As the pressure on your nervous system accumulates over time, it can reach a point where you no longer function like you need to, and you may experience a breakdown. Fortunately, there are many ways to mitigate and manage the effects of a nervous breakdown.
What Is a Nervous Breakdown?
The term “nervous breakdown” describes the uncommon onset of intense emotional or physical symptoms, typically associated with stress, fear, and anxiety, where normal functioning is impaired or impossible. Mental breaks seem to materialize suddenly but often brew inside like a storm, they begin to overflow under the right circumstances. Emotional breakdowns usually have extended periods of intense depression, anxiety, or acute stress following them, as the nervous system has nothing left to give after such an intense experience.1
A nervous breakdown is not the same as psychosis or brief psychotic disorders, which are diagnostic terms for similar episodes that can occur suddenly. Psychotic symptoms are more severe than what “nervous breakdown” typically calls to mind. In contrast to signs of mental breakdowns, psychosis can involve symptoms of hallucinations, delusions, slowed or limited movement, and difficulty thinking and speaking.2
Signs & Symptoms of a Nervous Breakdown
Having difficulty with tasks that were once easy for you can be the first sign of a breakdown. If you’re concerned that you are experiencing an emotional breakdown, consider how your ability to maintain daily functioning has been. As you begin to notice a continual decline in your ability to do things that you consider part of your basic functioning, coping with life’s daily challenges can suddenly become overwhelming.
Here are nine signs that a nervous breakdown is imminent:
- Losing interest in hobbies
- Worrying excessively
- Changes in eating patterns or habits
- Easily angered
- Difficulty managing obligations
- Isolating or withdrawing from others
- Unable to cope effectively with changes
- Numbing negative feelings with drugs or alcohol
- Low motivation
Nervous Breakdown Symptoms
These physical, mental, and emotional signs of a nervous breakdown can evolve even further, as sudden symptoms of depression and anxiety often coincide with a nervous breakdown. The various symptoms can blur together into a culmination of negative experiences, making it difficult to untangle the different warning signs and reasons behind a breakdown.
Symptoms of a nervous breakdown can include:
- Sleep Issues – sleeping too much or not enough, nightmares
- Thoughts of Self-Harm or Suicide
- Muscle Tension
- Low Energy
- Panic Attacks
- Mood Swings
- Crying Spells
- Stomach Issues
- Headaches
- Emotions Feeling Out of Control
- Increased Heart Rate
- Increased Sadness
- Feeling Purposeless
- Dizziness
- Sweating
What Causes a Nervous Breakdown?
A nervous breakdown, sometimes called a “mental breakdown” or an “emotional breakdown,” neither has defined consistent signs and symptoms nor is it recognized in the healthcare community as a formal diagnosis. Almost anything can lead to someone having a nervous breakdown, as everyone experiences stress differently. Knowing that no two people will have separate reactions to the environments they are in, it is essential to understand what affects you and why so that you can recognize an impending mental break and prevent it from taking full effect.
Things that may contribute to a nervous breakdown include:1
- Toxic Work Environments
- Medical Trauma
- Emotional Abuse
- Financial Stress
- Burnout
- Mom Burnout
- College Burnout
- Breakup or Divorce
- Panic Disorders
- Poor Social Support
- Types of Anxiety Disorders
- Family Stressors
- High-Functioning Depression
- Death of a Loved One
- Toxic Stress
- Emotional Exhaustion
How to Cope With a Mental Breakdown
While you can’t always prevent a nervous breakdown, as it can sometimes come without warning, there are things you can do to cope with and mitigate the potential damage to your health. Finding the motivation to not only survive but actively swim upstream of your emotional breakdown feels like an impossible task, but there is a way!
Here are ten ways to cope with a nervous breakdown:
1. Identify Stressors
It’s hard to make any change or cope with the challenges you’re experiencing if you can’t identify what they are. Take stock of what’s been going on for you lately that led to the breakdown and see what you need—perhaps you need to put up boundaries with a family member or take a break from working overtime.
2. Manage Your Stress
Stress Management helps you work towards balancing your emotional scale of things that stress you out and de-stress you by scheduling relaxing or enjoyable activities. Stress often occurs when circumstances are outside your control, leading to a nervous breakdown that can seem impossible to get a hold of. By identifying what fills you up and what feels like it takes away, you can take a more active role in controlling your life.
3. Meet Your Basic Needs
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs suggests that developing the capacity for enjoying hobbies and experiencing a connection with others requires your most basic needs to be met first. Reach out for support to family, friends, or local organizations in your community if you need help accessing basic, life-sustaining materials for yourself, such as food, shelter, and clothing.
4. Sleep
Sleep is one of those basic needs for the human body and mind; while you sleep, your brain processes all the emotional information you gather during the day.3 Low-quality sleep gives your brain less time to process your anxiety and lay it to rest. With your stress still active the following day, you can create consistent sleep problems creating a chronic cycle. The impact of sleep on mental health is paramount, and finding ways to improve your sleep will significantly reduce the chances of a nervous breakdown.
5. Exercise
While it may be the last thing you want to do when you’re in the middle of a mental breakdown, there are excellent mental health benefits of exercise. Study after study has shown that despite initially spiking your stress due to strenuous activity, it lowers your body’s stress hormones, like cortisol, over time and increases the hormones that make you feel good such as dopamine and serotonin 4.No particular exercise regimen is any better at decreasing anxiety and stress, so get your body moving for 30 minutes a day, 3-5 days per week, in whatever activity you enjoy.5
6. Eat Nourishing Food
Remember the old saying, “you are what you eat?” Well, you can’t directly eat stress, but you can eat foods that help keep your feel-good brain chemicals from going haywire. The primary keys here are increasing your water intake, decreasing alcohol and caffeine consumption, and listening to your body’s cues for when you feel hungry or full. Filling up your snack shelf with healthier options high in protein instead of carb-heavy snacks is an easy way to give your body what it needs.6
7. Opposite Action
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) suggests that one decisive way to combat overwhelming feelings is to act opposite to how you feel. First, identify the emotion you feel and how it is currently making you act, and then do something opposite to that negative behavior. For instance, if you feel stressed about an assignment and actively avoid it, choose to face it head on instead of procrastinating and compounding your stress.
8. Confidence-Boosting Activities
Once you’ve hit a point during a nervous breakdown where doing anything feels useless, think back to an activity you enjoyed, whether painting, working on cars, playing team sports, or anything. Carve out some time in your week to practice the things that are meaningful to you to regain some sense of competence, build confidence, and retake control of your life.
9. Get a Checkup
Even though the ideas in this list can be helpful, you should check in with your doctor to ensure your body is working how it is supposed to. Not every nervous breakdown results from accumulated stress or anxiety and may be due to underlying health conditions. Internal inflammation, thyroid dysfunction, poor sleep with sleep apnea, and many other issues can impact your mental health that may mask the underlying cause of your emotional response.7
10. Speak With a Therapist
Speak with someone trained to listen for the underlying causes of your emotional breakdown. A therapist can help build on your current strengths, teach you coping skills, and be a sounding board for everything that led up to your current frame of mind. Therapists can help you reframe your view of the difficult circumstances you’re in and teach you how to manage intense emotions.
When to Talk to a Therapist About a Mental Breakdown
There isn’t a specific treatment for nervous breakdowns, but a therapist can help treat underlying issues such as mental exhaustion. Operating with high chronic stress, anxiety, or depression can lead to emotional breakdowns, and managing symptoms is the key. Luckily, there are many types of therapy for depression and therapy for anxiety, so if the first kind of treatment you try doesn’t feel helpful, you can explore many types of treatment to find the kind of therapy you need.
A therapist can help you by using specific types of treatment and actively listening to help you untangle the thoughts and feelings that led to your nervous breakdown. Once a therapist can identify your concerns, they will teach you to cope with your emotions healthily and empower you to change any lifestyle habits that may have contributed to a breakdown. If you’re unsure where to start, learn how to find a therapist and find the right fit for your needs using our online therapist directory.
Final Thoughts
Nervous breakdowns can be severe if not addressed immediately, as they could lead to other emotional and mental disorders, so be sure to get help. Find a therapist who’s right for you and begin the hard work of regaining control in your life by finding peace through all the stress that life brings. Don’t forget that you have the power to change your life even when it may feel like there is no way out!
For Further Reading
Nervous Breakdown Infographics
