What is a nervous breakdown?
“Nervous breakdown” is neither a medical term nor does it have a precise definition in popular usage. Generally it refers to any state of sustained emotional distress that is severe enough to disrupt normal functioning for several days or more. Like many other words and phrases, “nervous breakdown” whatever the person using the term chooses it to mean. It is ironic, therefore, that a very common fear is . . . having a nervous breakdown! Even though nobody knows for sure what a nervous breakdown is, the prospect of having one is a sinister and frightening one because it suggests a complete loss of control and perhaps even insanity.
“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. The diagnosis that most closely resembles what the public calls a nervous breakdown is major depression. Depressive episodes may be caused by genetic and biological factors and are often triggered by social and environmental circumstances. Depression is defined as the “loss of interest or pleasure in nearly all activities” and “sustained fatigue without physical exertion.” Depression is characterized by a lack of energy and motivation along with feelings of guilt or hopelessness. It is ofte
