A lot of names for illnesses have changed over the years. For example, what use to be called manic depressive illness is now called bipolar disorder.
Even so, when I was growing up the term nervous breakdown was frequently used to describe a person who falls apart after a traumatic event in their life but subsequently recovers from having a nervous breakdown. However, I haven’t heard that term in decades. What is a nervous breakdown called today?
You might hear mental breakdown or mental health crisis. Or, just an anxiety attack.
I believe, and I could stand to be corrected, it is now connected as a form or PTSD.
I believe it’s called general anxiety disorder now. That’s what my shrink told me anyway. It can be debilitating, and it’s real. I think I got mine working in a prison for 20 years. I’m not ashamed to tell it now. I’ve been retired for 15 years, but still have bouts of needing a glass of wine to chill out occasionally. 
Isn’t that how it goes though? We have a hard day and just need a relief? Maybe it’s a glass of wine, maybe it’s a hard 5 mile run, maybe it’s a blowjob. I’ve never bought into the notion that prescription drugs solve everything. I just don’t know what people did 50 years ago when these drugs didn’t exist, they found some other way to cope.
I believe they probably died at 50 back in the day, It’s true that stress kills. It does other things to your mind and body beyond your control. I never want to be hooked on prescription drugs, but Xanax saved me when I had my breakdown, and I tapered off it with Clonsapam. (sp) I’m not ashamed and neither should anyone else be, it can happen to anyone. P.S. the only thing I take now is a tiny dose of wellbrutin. If you ever have a full blown panic attack where you’re sure you’re dying, you would understand.
Edited to add: Before it happened to me, I thought like you do on the subject. But not anymore.
And that’s the crux of it, I’ve dealt with real trauma in my life yet I think I’m fine. I deal with stress at work that makes people flatline (stop talking) or cry. I just don’t need drugs so I don’t understand the need.
Yeah, I was just fine for years too. I bid a yard gunner assignment and was there 2 years. 200 Male inmates on the yard at a time. Gang bangers who would start a riot over a friggen basketball or one disrespected someone and they all fight. About once a week. I had a mini 14 but had to use the 37 first. Everythings fine until I’m driving to work one day, and my heart starts pounding out of my chest and gets tight, my throat swelled up and I can’t breath, sweating like a pig. I stopped in a mini mart and the clerk called 911. I laid in the ER for 6 hours for the doctor to tell me I had a panic attack. After that it was the fear of it happening again that became debilitating. I retired soon after since I had my 20 years in and took a regular retirement, but also got a workmans comp award. It didn’t happen because I was weak, it happened to men too in my 20 years. Anyhow that’s my story and it feels good to air it out. No shame here.
I can 100% understand that!!
You are literally in one of the highest stress jobs in the world.
You have to have a special kind of disposition for that.
Bur people are all different, sometimes a small chemical change can make a world of difference.
Something similar happened to a buddy of mine.
He was on medical leave for six months.
I would go to his house every morning ( I worked swing shift) and drink coffee and we would do the NYT crossword together.
When I left corrections over 15 years ago it took me six months to realize you could actually go to work without being pissed off.
Imagine if we had someone that went to school for this.
Anyways,
A nervous breakdown was never really a medical term. It is more of a layman’s term.
It could be anxiety, PTSD, Depression, or many other things. It is more of a general term to say someone has lost their marbles.
As the DSM has evolved, many things have become vaguer such as ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder).
SOme things have become more precise but my mind isn’t ringing a bell right this second. There has been a general trend of making things more vague, which I don’t like.
A good example though of a nervous breakdown is a person with PTSD. They hear gunshots and they go into a fetal position and start to cry. to the average person they’re confused and think the person has lost their marbles.
It happens to the best of us. There is no shame it. Just make sure you get your heart checked out.
I was arguing with my primary care about this topic. He said I was having panic attacks, I said no this feels similar but different. He asked if I felt more qualified than him to diagnose a panic attack. I said yes but I don’t believe in self-diagnosis.
I ended up going to urgent care because they know me there. They ran an EKG and found out my heart was racing and irregular. They had to me go right to the ER.
My BP was over 180 and my pulse over 150. That isn’t a panic attack.
I had a weird reaction to the COVID Booster. I have seen three cardiologists and they all agree it was from the booster. I did not even have to mention it, it was the first question they asked.
I still got two more boosters. Luckily I did not have a reaction to those.
Thanks for all the responses to my question. I would like to express my empathy to all of you who had traumatic experiences.
A few years ago I was attacked at a gas station which was quite traumatic. This is the victim impact statement that I wrote for my attackers hearing that was held a few months later.
"On December 27, 2020 I went to the Mobil gas station on the xxxx Road in xxxxx to fill my car with gas. As I was putting the fuel nozzle in my car, a male got behind me and pulled my purse which was on my shoulder. Since I was holding the fuel hose in my right hand, I didn’t let go of it because of the potential danger it would pose to people who were at the gas station. So I used my left hand to try to hold onto my purse as this person dragged me by pulling my purse, while my right hand was holding the fuel hose. He then got into the passenger side of a car, still holding my purse, which caused me to be dragged by a moving car. At that point I let go of my purse because I could have been seriously injured if I didn’t.
Being dragged caused me to lose my balance which made me fall. As a result of that fall, my face was a bloody mess and I, also, injured my leg. The police officer who arrived at the scene called an ambulance for me because my nose looked like it was broken. My leg has still not completely healed from this incident and I have had several appointments with an orthopedist.
In addition to stealing my purse which included my house keys, iPhone, charge cards, cash, and personal information, he robbed me of something much worse, my sense of security. Between the time that he stole my house keys which were in my purse and when I had the locks changed I was terrified that he would enter my home. When someone gets behind me now, I panic, and I still won’t go to a gas station by myself. This is the first time in my 73 years of life that I ever felt this way."