What Does A Mental Breakdown Feel Like? What Happens?

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I am concerned incase I have one. I seem to be daily stressed. This morning I am relaxing. I am taking things easy. Yesterday, for most of the day I hardly had the strength to move or walk etc. I think it was stress. I don't want to have any breakdown and don't know how to avoid it. Everything stresswize is not from me, but through an accumilation of external factors where... Well. I can't myself prevent. If I try to say to people "No. Give my Mum and I a break" they will get offended and I will be majorly stressed and feel guilty because I have said that (I feel guilty when I try to hint, or if I have to spend the whole day on my day off shut inside my bedroom to try to keep calm. At least today so far is a day off... And so far no visitors! Why do visitors call in if they hear you are not coping due to stress? My brother wasn't happy as his kids had to go back home as ztrangely my youngest brothers wife who is used to dealing with lots of people, was feeling the effects of stress from their camping here with half my brothers kids and friends etc. My brother who has kids was hoping for time out from his stress I guess. It seems when my brother who has kids is having a hard time the stress comes this way, and also if my Mum is stressed I get stressed. I'm supposed to be the one who has no responsibilities so when Isay I am stressed they all look at me daft! Grr! I have no excuses really as in recent years I have had to shift as much responsibilities as I can away from myself to cope with life, but it seems the more I do this, the more others try to fill my time... (They feel I need to be doing things... The only reason why I try to give my posessions away and downsize is I can't deal with keeping so many things in good condition. The reason why I don't join a model railway club or visit exhibitions etc is that I need time out... (And model railways are my life). The reason why I have quit cycling is that if I go out someone calls me back early because something has happened (One emergency or another) and I have to try to belt it back while stressed and there is a two mile climb up a 1 in 4 hill to get home, and these days I can't cope with the thought of going out to try to unwind on my bicycle as for many months, even a couple of years, I have not had a day I can call my own without someone somewheee needing help and my mum getting some sob story and I needing to get back quick to then go and drive her to whoever needs help. So many despeart people these days!

But what are the things to watch out for? I mean... Are there signs that if I see I need to say "No" and shut myself off for a day or two? I seem to be naturally doing this already as I am unable to walk sometimes due to stress. Is it stress? It is like I feel so much pressure inside that I am almost feeling physically ill and also my strength goes... Is partial shutdown stage... But the difference being, I usually get partial shutdowns without much of a stress through this external pressure... Usually with partial shutdowns there is a sudden unexpected trigger like my brother suddenly announces out of the blue he needs help lifting something very heavy which I thought he was going to tackle at a later date and he suddenly changes his mind. That will bring on a partial shutdown for me and then a shutdown because he would say "Every time I go to ask for your help you get like this" and when I don't have the "Grrr!" to reply the partial shutdown turns into a shutdown as I am on the floor regardless if the weather! Be it pouring with rain or anything like that. I am on the floor as they then have to leave me there...

But this stress s a continual pressure, not a sudden unable to cope.

Oh dear. Phonecall to my Mum... Ummm.

A nervous breakdown is sometimes a term used to describe sudden mental illness, which could mean literally anything psychosis or neurosis.

Leaving aside psychosis which is basically madness, you wouldn't be here right now questioning, but away with the aliens and fairies. Mad people don't know their mad or they wouldn't be mad.

In neurosis it means over sensitivity to stimuli, your nerves don't breakdown so to speak but get over sensitised, so your more likely to get panic attacks.

The way to beat this kind of thing is to float away your anxieties, and face your panic attacks head on. Panic attacks are harmless to health, you wont get a heart attack or anything, just say to it "give me your worst" enter the eye of the storm and you`ll see its just a paper tiger. The more you do this the less you`ll have, until they eventually go away.

The more you run the more it will chase you just turn around and face it.

Thanks Mike91.

I am more relaxed today. Should be fine for a bit as I know I only have this and next week to work. I know after that I have time to relax, so the pressure has dissapated.

I am tempted to say a nervous breakdown is what happens when someone willing to intervene is paying attention to how things are for you. Otherwise it just carries on for years and becomes chronic stress and burnout and you don't have a real life you just pick yourself up over and over again by your bootstraps when you can until the next crisis knocks you down again. Or maybe it is when you fall apart in public rather than in private? Anyway I suspect it is no worse than many of us with autism experience repeatedly. So don't worry you have probably already survived quite a few of them.

It does make sense. I have been like this for several years. Prior to this I was fine. Ok, I had a few issues, but the recent few years, especially recently have been the worst. A chatter in here did mention I needed to take a break from life if I can or I could risk having some sort of breakdown or something along those lines. The person thought from what I described that it maybe burnout. I habe taken things seriously and decided to record certain important things so if my mind does have effects that are more serious, I don't lose certain important information that I might need. I gve my Mum the information so if anything happened, she can get in touch here and other places. I doubt it will come to that, but just incase...

The last couple of days the pressure has eased as I found out I just have this week and next week in work and then the temporary work finishes. Plenty of overtime is available to add to my part time hours, but I am going easy with it... Like yesterday and today I did an extra hour but no more as I felt myself then feeling the effects so... Well, I am listening to my body and mind. If I feel fine I work on. If not I don't.
They did ask me if I wanted to work tomorrow on my day off but I have said no because I feel my body needs the break. In the past I would have done a lot more, but I find I struggle these days. It almost feels like I am twice my age! Anyway. I will do a little overtime as I can but I need to listen to my body as well.
It may seem daft but 4 hours in a day with the extra hour making five is about all I can do at the moment, and I need the day off. I was saying to them in work that efore I used to do 9am (Sometimes earlier) to 8pm and sometimes 10pm 7 days a week for a month and a half before Christmas (I would only get paid 33 hours due to the contract, but one did these things to ensure customers were happy, as if I didn't customers were not going to get their bikes).

Anyway. I am taking things easy.