# Nervous Breakdown
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nervous-breakdown/5585
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [December 27, 1999, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nervous-breakdown/5585 "1999-12-27T03:55:00Z")
**Posts on this page:** 10
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@theuglytruth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/theuglytruth)
#### Post date: [December 27, 1999, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nervous-breakdown/5585/1 "1999-12-27T03:55:00Z")
What exactly does it mean to have a “nervous breakdown”? Is this an actual medical condition, or is just a generic term for “freaking out” under stress?
If it is a real medical term, what are the symptons? How do I know if I am having one?
For instance, after spending three straight days fighting mall traffic Christmas shopping last week, I broke down in tears, pulled my car over, stripped naked, put on foam Rudolph ears, and started singing Christmas Carols in traffic.
Did I have a nervous breakdown? Or did I have too many No-Doz again???
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### Author:  [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)
#### Post date: [December 27, 1999, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nervous-breakdown/5585/2 "1999-12-27T04:56:00Z")
A nervous breakdown is a general term used by laypersons to describe any sort of mental illness where exhaustion is one of the prinicpal symptoms.
Someone having a “nervous breakdown” could be clinically depressed, schizophrenic, anxious.
Usually the patient can’t cope with everyday life as a result of the “breakdown”.
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### Author:  [@coosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coosa)
#### Post date: [December 27, 1999, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nervous-breakdown/5585/3 "1999-12-27T06:37:00Z")
Isn’t it now called having a “psychotic break”?
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Carpe diem - Seize the day
Carpe noctem - Seize the night
Carpe cerevisi - Seize the beer
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### Author:  [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [December 27, 1999, 10:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nervous-breakdown/5585/4 "1999-12-27T10:14:00Z")
cus: nervous breakdown would apply to a perfectly normal person who is unable to face a stress or stresses such as the death of a mother or child and is crying for help. They may have fainting spells or talk in gibberish or function abnormally. It is a generic term and has no particular measurement or degree of abnormal behavior.
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cry and the world cries with you; laugh and you laugh alone
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### Author:  [@fuzzy-wuzzy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fuzzy-wuzzy)
#### Post date: [December 27, 1999, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nervous-breakdown/5585/5 "1999-12-27T12:11:00Z")
Where did you get the foam Rudolph Ears?
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### Author:  [@theuglytruth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/theuglytruth)
#### Post date: [December 27, 1999, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nervous-breakdown/5585/6 "1999-12-27T14:01:00Z")
I borrowed them off the woman talking to herself in tongues at the side of the road. I guess she was Xmas shopping as well.
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### Author:  [@Moonshine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moonshine)
#### Post date: [December 27, 1999, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nervous-breakdown/5585/7 "1999-12-27T14:10:00Z")
For those scientists amongst us who prefer to rely on empirical evidence rather than on hearsay and anecdote, ar’ye postin’ any photos?
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It only hurts when I laugh.
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### Author:  [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)
#### Post date: [December 27, 1999, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nervous-breakdown/5585/8 "1999-12-27T15:00:00Z")
Just last week someone at my office (no, not me) was bundled off to the hospital with a “panic attack.” Is this “nervous breakdown lite?” I figure I was born with a panic attack and it’s pretty much been that way ever since . . .
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### Author:  [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [December 27, 1999, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nervous-breakdown/5585/9 "1999-12-27T16:35:00Z")
## Nervous breakdown is a lay term, not a clinical one. I have not seen it used for panic attacks, or 30 minute episodes in which someone needs to retreat & recharge, but for weeks-long episodes in which someone is incapable of meeting their obligations. A widow not going to work for a few weeks would NOT be classified as a nervous breakdown; one who was unable to attend the funeral would be.
Sue from El Paso
Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted.
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### Author:  [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)
#### Post date: [December 27, 1999, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nervous-breakdown/5585/10 "1999-12-27T17:06:00Z")
It just means the person can’t mentally handle things anymore & need some mental rest, drugs or whatever. Like way too much pressure on them or something. Im sure there is a medical term for it.