What is a nervous breakdown? What are the signs? Could you have one and not ev!

What is a nervous breakdown? What are the signs? Could you have one and not even know it?

Love to hear from Opester and Dr. D. Star Reader on this.

6 days ago
I didn't realize that "nervous breakdown" wasn't a clinical term with no set symptoms. I have a depression issue and sometimes I wonder if I'm bi-polar but I've had so many things happen in my life the last seven years that I just attributed it to my life and that it's all just situational. But I've often wondered if maybe I had a nervous breakdown and just didn't know it. Seems as if there's no clear definition of it now.

Kinda tough to answer this as "nervous breakdown" is a lay term and not a clinical one, so it really doesn't refer to any particular mental illness, but rather any mental illness. I've heard people use it to describe anything from menopause to major depression to full-blown psychotic breaks, so the particular symptoms would vary widely depending on the illness it is referring to. I think people are often unaware of the onset of a mental illness, particularly those with gradual and subtle onset like the prodromal phase in schizophrenia. Generally, though, I think people realize it when they develop full-blown symptoms of severe mental illness, but they might mistakenly attribute the cause of their symptoms to other things. This is particularly true with psychotic disorders where people don't attribute their delusional thoughts or hallucinations to an illness, but rather to conspiracy plots, alien interference or divine revelation, etc. So in that sense, yes, people can be extremely ill and not realize it is an illness-that's pretty common. Many people with major depression and even bipolar disorder don't realize they are ill as well and blame their symptoms on a number of other causes and then there are those that are in denial despite having been diagnosed and the ability of family and friends to quickly recognize that they are suffering from an illness. Denial is extremely common in people suffering from delusional disorder (there are many types) as the symptom itself is a distorted perception of reality and so they do not recognize that it is their own thoughts and perceptions which contradict reality and attempts to help them see this are often perceived as attacks and one can quickly become viewed as part of the conspiracy.
Hope this helps some-it's difficult to answer because there is no standard meaning to the term and I have heard it applied to so many things, even those things that would not be classified as a mental illness (like menopause!)

Added:
Remember that the DSM IV identifies symptoms and is a taxonomy guide, not a treatment manual nor one that postulates causality in most instances. It is descriptive only. Depressions, whether endogenous or exogenous, which manifest all the symptoms is still depression. Despite the roles of heredity and biochemistry, environmental factors continue to remain hugely significant and that's why therapy is so helpful. Don't get bound up in what came first-the chicken or the egg-aka did the neurochemical imbalance cause the depression or did the depression (resulting from real life crises) cause the imbalance. We don't know in every instance, but we know meds can even out the biochemistry no matter what caused the imbalance in the first place. Therapy deals with the distorted thinking that can be both a result of or a cause of chronic depression and can evolve from repeated bad life experiences and it can also contribute to their continuation.

Did you want some info on Bipolar?
Added again, just in case it's helpful, because I need to hit the hay:

Bipolar Disorder comes in 2 forms, Bipolar I and Bipolar II. Bipolar I is the type most people think of where someone experiences shifts between depression, mania and/or mixed episodes. Bipola II is most like recurrent major depressive episodes interspersed with hypomanic episodes (which do not reach the level of a mania). The following is a general description of some of the criteria for depression and mania, but you should not attempt diagnosis yourself. You can check the exact criteria in a DSM IV and a thorough history needs to be taken for accurate diagnosis and assessment.
Criteria for Depression are five of the following during a 2 week period:
1) depressed mood more days than not, can be just irritable in adolescents and children and frequently men show more irritability
2) decreased or increased appetite accompanied by weight gain or loss
3) hypersomnia or insomnia
4) recurrent thoughts of death or dying, suicidal ideation
5) observable psychomotor retardation or agitation
5) anhedonia (loss of interest in previous pleasurable activities)
6) subjective feelings of restlessness or being slowed down
7) Difficulty concentrating and/or making decisions
Criteria for a Mania:
1) Decreased need for sleep without feeling tired despite only several hours per night or no sleep
2) Pressured speech that is difficult to interrupt(talking very rapidly and loudly with pressure to keep talking)
3) Flight of Ideas or "racing thoughts"
4) Increased energy
5) Engaging in a flurry of goal-directed activity-either impulsive behavior that has a high potential for damaging consequences-spending money, reckless driving, sexual promiscuity, etc. or excessively overproductive with respect to work
6) a consistently elevated or "high" mood or a consistently irritable mood
7) grandiose delusions-seeing oneself as more important or powerful than they truly are but in delusional proportions, not simply inflated self-esteem

Bipolar II is similar but the manic symtoms are less severe and rarely warrant hospitalization as they do not reach psychotic levels.

Additionally there is a condition called cyclothymia where a person cycles between hypomania and dysthymia (milder depression).

The condition most often has a genetic component and often there are first degree relatives with the disorder. there is also a higher prevalence of other mood disorders and eating disorders and alcoholism among relatives.