who has had a nervous breakdown?
 

What is it? Whats it like? How long can it last?

Thanks , I dont know what happened to me yesterday....Panic attack maybe...almost quit my job. had to go home early, 5 shots of Vodka and a cigar later I wasnt shaking anymore, but i was still wired. Wife looked worried. I dont drink much (light weight) and 5 shots would generally put me on the floor, out cold.

I feel better today, but i dont like what happened yesterday.
Boss called me in for a talk, dont know what its about..but i can guess.

and some how, I dont care. Dont get me wrong, I need this job, and i am good at it, but....

my mother in-law had one after her 7th kid. Electro shock, drugs, shrinks, etc. At that point she refused to cook or do house work and the first 7 raised the next 3.

35yrs later with only her and her husband she still hasn't done any house work and "gets even" with her husband by remodeling the living room with $20,000 [est] living room window decorations, custom furniture, etc any time they argue. Sometimes it could happen every 3 months.

it's called "Fear"... your underlying mood governs how your involuntary nervous system reacts. you probably feared the worst when your boss called you in for a meeting and you freaked out...
this has happened to me many times at work..shaky hands, nervous feelings in my stomach, can't think straight. it's terrible.
believe it or not, this might have to do with your childhood, you might see your boss as the "father figure" you were afraid when you were young.

I had one about 5 years ago. Mine is a little different than what is described above.

I had had my wisdom teeth pulled on Good Friday. Monday-Friday the following week I was in a DB2 class. I am normally a quick learner and absorb information easily. The whole next week, as the week went on, I felt more and more behind and more and more paranoid. By Thursday, I was ready to run out of the class screaming. I was sweating, my heart was racing. Thursday night, I thought about what was going on (I was having anxiety both at and away from work). I never take my work home (mentally or physically), so this was highly unusual. I thought about what was different this week. I got to thinking about the prescriptions I was on: an antibiotic, an anti-inflammatory, and a pain killer. I'd had the specific steroid (anti-inflammatory) before, I'd had Vicodin before. I'd never had the anti-biotic I was prescribed before. I stopped taking it immediately. I felt better the next day.

Rodeo must have had one.

No, I haven't heard any stories of lawyers in the northeast going on shooting rampages.

Maybe he's waiting for the Republican convention in '08?

I'm scheduling one for a couple weeks from now.

Len, I'm guessing that business has not turned around?

Don't want hijack this thread, but no.

FWIW I have a buddy that had panic attacks every couple of weeks for a few years. I forget what medication he ended up with but it cured him. After that he was able to cheat on his wife without the annoying attacks afterwards:D

panic attack happened hours before the request for meeting....
Meeting was because i was on a concall with a customer and I said a few things the customer did not want to hear. My manager was on that call.

I really didnt say anything really really wrong...just not quite right.

We talked things over and he understands why things went the way they did. He smoothed things over with the customer and its back to business.

What he wants from me is to be more mindful and tactful of what i say. Kind of like DE, being smooth and holding the line will get you farther and faster.

Now I just gotta continue to calm down.

I've had my share- started when I was about 20. Thing is, I didn't even know what it was or identify it. I let it get to the point of debilitation around the age of 24. If someone cut me off or was rude or I screwed something up, my heart rate would FIRE up, and I would get 'shaky' as you describe, and I can tell you what I have learned.

When you are stressed/depressed enough, your body reacts PHYSICALLY. When that happens, it freaks you out mentally even more. It cycles into horror. You body reacts in a fight-or-flight fashion- adrenaline pumping, heart racing, maybe sweating, etc. So, you can have somebody say you made an error on a report, and your body reacts like a lion jumped out of the bushes. If not addressed, it will take its toll on your body. You'll feel sore, you can't relax, maybe you can't sleep.

I am a dumbass, and let it run like this until I wanted to shut myself in a room and never come out. This is not a solution though, as you don't feel better.

My recommendation is to take stock of things NOW, before they can get worse. They can get WAY worse. Remove as much stress as possible from your life, and manage what remains. Exercise is the single strongest anti-stress thing you can do, more powerful than any meds that are available. Even going for walks can help a lot. But get in control now.

Also- it will likely be a lifelong thing. Nothing to worry about, it just means that you have to be more conscious about things than the average person. I still catch myself occasionally, and because we know whats up now, its not nearly such a big deal.

Get your wife on board, I did that and it helps.

Your central nervous system reacts to your mood. these are the involuntary nerves at work. a person who has a nervous illness is very sensitized, reacts to normal things in ways that are irrational.

just like rammstein said about being criticized about small things... or for me, sometime just waiting in line at the post office can trigger anxiety, create feelings of uneasiness or uncertainty.

it is curable, however. you have to realize that it can't cause your body harm, you have to accept it, face it, and let it get past you.
i've suffered with anxiety , triggered by events, like being asked to go in for a meeting with the boss or just meetings in general, being paranoid about what others are saying and how I am "perceived"..just someone looking at me during a meeting triggers it. and being afraid of those physical feelings makes it even worse.

supposedly your thoughts create feeling. body feelings don't just come from nowhere. if you can analyze and write down your thoughts, that's a starting point.

Somebody who says this SERIOUSLY understands the problem. Well said.

right, in medical terms, this is called second fear

btw, i stronly recommend this book: Hope and Help for your Nerves
it changed my life.

I have not had one but I have known several folks who have. Everyone deals with it differently. Some find the bottle, others find God. Some worked through it and became better people while others are still messed up. It is different for everyone.

I can offer no words of advise only my sympathy and understanding for your discomfort. I hope you find strength in knowing that there are many folks in this world who are very willing to help and even more people sharing your pain and finding how to feel better.

Stay strong and know that you have a bunch of P-car freaks thinking about you!

I have.

I'm one of those folks who seem exceedingly calm. Very relaxed, or so it appears. In reality, the calm thing is a facade. It is learned. It is just not feasible for me to exhibit my anxiety in my daily life. It is NOT helpful. I occasionally have those small panic attack things where you feel like you're not getting enough air. But as I say, all that is quite manageable.

Then one day a couple of years ago, I was in a situation where someone important to me......bailed. Abandoned me, basically. I didn't really know how or why this person's presence was important to me. Still don't. That person is gone now. But when I was trying to deal with that, I got to the point where I had to go see a trusted friend and just let him make decisions for me. We went to see a doctor. Eventually I went to another doctor. And then another. There was Zanax and there were a couple of other medications. Ultimately, I saw a doctor that realized I needed meds to simply SHUT MY MIND DOWN. Kind of a re-booting, thing. Valium. That's what worked. A week or two of that, and I was back on my feet. Everything's been fine since.

I'm on my 19th Nervous Breakdown...

I am the exact opposite. People who know me at work would probably describe me as "intense". The thing is, I get all of my frustration out the moment I have it, and I don't save it up. I say what I think, and I move on. I might even be championing the thing I criticized in the next meeting. When it is not appropriate to get it out at the moment, I find another outlet, THAT DAY. I bike to a small town 25 miles away. I spend an hour at the range. I take a fast, winding drive around Lake Bloomington. I start an involved project at home. My "intense" exterior often hides a very calm, very at peace interior.