You hear that phrase used all the time but have never really known what it is.
Is it like anxiety?
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I actually used to hear the term a lot in the seventies and eighties. I rarely hear it now. In fact when I was first diagnosed in 1980’s, schizophrenia kind of fell under the umbrella of being called a nervous breakdown.
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I went through it years ago, the stress was too much for me, I lost touch with reality, my arms would make involuntary moves. could not sleep, it was a real bad time
I think it’s an old fashioned and “polite” way to describe a psychotic breakdown.
It was a common term during the 1970’s.
Yeah it was common parlance not that long ago. It was a polite way of saying you’d gone mental. These days and more appropriately it’s just a psychotic or depressive break which is more factual.
As the population ages and dies off your probably going to see such terminology fade out of use. The english language is pretty good at that!
yeah, its when you fall apart mentally, you cant take anymore,my first one was at work and my boss at the time took me to the hospital
From all the contexts I’ve heard IRL it may even mean suicide…well so I heard anyways.
My dad told me my grandmother said her side of the family had “bad nerves” but my grandfather’s side was just crazy!
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The expression “nervous breakdown” has been in use for more than 100 years and isn’t a psychiatric term for anything specific. It’s slang and sometimes means feeling emotionally overwhelmed, or “flipping out” or “losing it.” Others reserve the term for true psychosis, or an inability to function due to a psychiatric disorder. It is also misleading because nerves don’t break down in mental illnesses.
Years ago. Mid 70s.I was described as having ‘Nervous debility’.
Nerves don’t break.
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