Mental breakdown: a new term for when we reach the limit

Mental breakdown refers to a period of “mental breakdown” or “breakdown of calm and mental health”. Although it is an Anglo-Saxon term, it has become popular in non-English speaking countries. Above all it is used among young people, assuming it as a common and non-reprehensible expression.

Young people feel the taboo of talking about their feelings, and These popular terms help them express themselves and “break the ice”. However, doing so only with a term that does not belong to the native language reveals that there is still a lot of stigma around mental health.

What does mental breakdown mean?

Mental breakdown is a term to describe a period of intense stress in which the person believes that he or she is unable to cope with life’s challenges. Historically, it has referred to episodes of “sudden and uncontrollable madness.”

This “mental break” varies from person to person. Some may fall into depression with a loss of hope in all their projects. Others face it with insomnia or even hallucinations.

He mental breakdown It refers to what was previously called “nervous breakdown” or “mental breakdown.” Nervous breakdown was a term used decades ago to describe a series of feelings associated with strong discomfort.

It involved being extremely overwhelmed, with symptoms ranging from depression to anxiety and psychosis, so that functioning was behaviorally disrupted. This term was widely used after World War I and World War II. Since then, its recurrence has decreased.

The term mental breakdown is not used in the clinical setting.

Mental breakdown in famous people

The media constantly reports on young stars and how their early fame has a series of consequences that exceed their emotional coping resources.

The constant attention, the need to be in the public spotlight, and the various reports that affect every aspect of a person’s life are addictive and stressful. They may have wanted to be stars, but in few cases they have wanted to be a model of nothing.

It is a difficult and demanding position and the slightest mistake can lead to a heavy fall. The transition from anonymous to famous can be great. The spotlight can give a feeling of happiness and recognition, but it can also In many contexts it represents a great shock to a young mind.

The non-scientific terms we use

Mental breakdown or nervous breakdown have never been medical terms. Just like it isn’t now mental breakdown. They are words that we use informally to make ourselves understood without being too “dense” in an informal or colloquial environment.

Patients firmly believed in nervous breakdowns as a psychiatric condition much worse than “ordinary” nerves, until “the great transition” to depression occurred by the medical community.

However, even today, The concept of a nervous breakdown has a kind of clandestine existence in patients’ folklore. It is not strange to hear this concept in everyday conversations, without knowing if it is something related to a depressive, bipolar or psychotic tendency. Still, we understand that that person has suffered a lot for a certain time and that message is enough.

With all this, we can intuit that there is great difficulty in communicating pain and psychological discomfort. Therefore, these terms are chosen to make themselves understood and, in some cases, ask for help.

Mental breakdown as a popular reaction to psychiatric diagnosis

In modern Western countries, society has assumed broad institutional responsibility for mental health status and well-being. We now live in a completely diagnostic culture that systematically compiles and reorders our ailments into objective disorders.

Soon, we have become accustomed to and even used psychiatric diagnostic languageboth to understand ourselves and to relate to ourselves and others.

We perceive ourselves as institutional, legal and administratively defined patientstrapped in a professional language that almost completely threatens to take over and eclipse lived and experienced reality.

Therefore, we are not equal to our ancestors. We are not desperate, persecuted, alone, in pain and loss, dejected, heartbreak, sorrow, anguish or sad. Now we are mentally or psychically ill, we are depressed, anxious, obsessive, etc.

Furthermore, at the same time that we have begun to “believe the right thing” in diagnosing our own disorders and pseudodisorders, We have left behind traditional terms and forms of “popular psychology” to understand ourselves, when we struggle and get stuck with our psyche and our existence.

Sometimes it is wise and a great advantage to be able to turn to a mental health service and professionals when it comes to our ailments and life problems. However, it often feels too overwhelming to be able to unravel the meaning of those diagnoses on our own.

Stress and anxiety are associated with mental breakdown.

Is it possible to express discomfort without feeling stigmatized?

Given the impossibility of being able to talk whenever we want with a professional about how we feel during the days, terms like mental breakdown They can help us express discomfort without feeling too stigmatized.

The population without training in psychology may be scared if they hear a loved one talk about bipolarity, psychotic break or dissociative episode.

All of these colloquial terms, under certain circumstances, can play a positive role in our emotional self-care. We need an attitude and language that can capture and express the deepest experiencewithout having to continually establish diagnostic tables.

Of course, always with some limits: just as there are colds for which we do not need to go to the doctor, there are also other conditions for which we do need to go to the specialist, whether medical or psychological.

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