MD> IG>  I tell this to patients of mine who ask if they have had
MD> IG>  a nervous breakdown. And, then point to the couple of
MD> IG>  hundred books I have in my consulting room and say, "I
MD> IG>  have quite a few books on psychiatry here.  In none of
MD> IG>  them will you find the term 'nervous breakdown.'"

MD>Is there, then, something called "nervous exhaustion"?

A nervous breakdown is simply a depressive reaction to excessive
stress, essentially reactive depression.  It is rooted in the protective
mechanisms of animals towards threats, and is related to such phenomena
as "learned helplessness" and "freezing".  (The locus of this phenomenon
is probably in the subcortical dopaminergic interactions between
the basal ganglia and the diencephalon.)   Why this particular term
is not in current use in the psychiatric literature I don't know (but
see below) - plenty of other plain English terms are.

Nervous breakdowns are quite real.  One of my physician brothers in
Australia recently had a "nervous breakdown" which landed him in the
hospital afer his wife died a horrible death of cancer and his
childrens' behavior became absolutely intolerable, accusing him of
{*filter*}ing their mother.

Nervous exhaustion is another older term of overlapping connotation,
more commonly known in medical circles as neurasthenia, of which Chronic
Fatigue Syndrome is one form. Possibly one reason why the terms "nervous
breakdown" and "nervous exhaustion" have fallen out of favor is that
they imply a particular explanation of how the human brain and nervous
system function which has long been discredited.

AJR

 * OLX 2.1 TD * This tagline stolen by Off-Line Xpress!

MD>Is there, then, something called "nervous exhaustion"?

 AR> A nervous breakdown is simply a depressive reaction to excessive
 AR> stress, essentially reactive depression.  It is
 AR> rooted in the protective
 AR> mechanisms of animals towards threats, and is
 AR> related to such phenomena
 AR> as "learned helplessness" and "freezing".  (The
 AR> locus of this phenomenon
 AR> is probably in the subcortical dopaminergic interactions between
 AR> the basal ganglia and the diencephalon.)   Why this particular term
 AR> is not in current use in the psychiatric literature I don't know (but
 AR> see below) - plenty of other plain English terms are.

 AR> Nervous breakdowns are quite real.  One of my physician brothers in
 AR> Australia recently had a "nervous breakdown" which landed him in the

Thank you.  I, also, know of at least two people who ended up in the hospital
with a diagnosis of "nervous breakdown", and your definition (or is it a
description?) fits their situations perfectly.