I’ve known several people who’ve had what’s been described as nervous breakdowns while in their teens. In all the cases I’m thinking of, I’ve known them before the breakdowns and afterwards, but these are not people I’m in contact with on a daily basis, and I was not in contact with them at the time the breakdowns first occurred.
So I don’t know what they were like at the height of the episode (or if there was one). But I am able to testify to the long-term - and apparently permanent - change in their personalities. And in every case it involves going into what one might call a semi-zombie state. Meaning their speech and action become much slower, they have a tendency to look at you for a few seconds before responding to what you say, and in general seem to walk around with a sort of vacant stare. Whereas beforehand they were sharp lively kids.
My question is: what exactly has happened to these people?
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And in every case it involves going into what one might call a semi-zombie state. Meaning their speech and action become much slower, they have a tendency to look at you for a few seconds before responding to what you say, and in general seem to walk around with a sort of vacant stare.
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Sounds like severe clinical depression to me. At its worst, it can present symptoms that look like catatonia.
What was the approximate age of onset? Schizophrenia most often hits in the late teens to the early twenties. You don’t appear to be describing psychosis, but if someone has a psychotic break and is put on medication to control it, the medication side effects could very much look like what you describe.
It raises the question of whether the marked personality changes you perceive are symptoms of the mental illness itself, or side effects of medication.
Late teens.
Good point. That had not occurred to me.
Generally, they don’t call them “nervous breakdowns” anymore. They are known as major depressive episodes.
A close relative had one at 22. She was hospitalized briefly, and was put on anti-depressants, but is now off them and is her same old self.
The side effects of medication could explain the symptoms you describe, as another poster stated…