Top Causes of Mental Breakdowns: From Chronic Stress to Emotional Trauma
So many of us can feel swamped by life’s pressures: a demanding career, family responsibilities, social commitments, and so on. However, not everyone can find the time to pause and recover from the stress.
It’s all too common to have days where work or personal life feels incredibly busy. Maybe you’re working in retail over the holidays or doing overtime to cover for absent staff. Then, you could be going home to young children or caring for a dependent or sick family member. And perhaps you have to get up the next morning and do it all over again. As a result, a cycle of anxiety, stress, lack of sleep, and exhaustion may become your routine.
This description might ring true for you. And if this is the case, the importance of rest can’t be overstated. Neglecting to look after your mind and body during times of stress can mean that someone can reach breaking point.
This intense state of exhaustion – mental, physical, and emotional – is known as a “mental breakdown.”
Mental breakdowns are serious, so it’s important to be aware of the causes, as well as the available treatments. The good news is there’s a lot of awareness and research out there, and Mission Connection is here to help.
Let this article serve as a useful guide, as it explores:
- The causes of nervous breakdowns
- How to know if you or a loved one is experiencing a mental breakdown
- Support options during a mental health crisis
- How Mission Connection can help with support and recovery options
Causes of Nervous Breakdowns: Emotional, Psychological, and Lifestyle Triggers
Mental breakdowns don’t just happen at random. They can be the result of many different pressures in life: a demanding career, looking after dependents, health concerns, and so on.
When someone is going through multiple stressors like these all at the same time, they can feel like a whirlpool of stress and incredibly challenging to process. In other words, multiple stressors can feel like heavy baggage and can prevent someone from living their life in a healthy, happy way.
So it’s good practice to catch the moments when life feels like it’s becoming too much.
Knowing what causes a mental breakdown is the first step, as this knowledge can present clear opportunities for intervening with care and support. The following sections look at the causes of nervous breakdowns: emotional, psychological, and lifestyle factors.
Emotional Stress and Breakdowns
Emotional stress is one of the most common triggers of a breakdown. This is because, over time, the weight of emotional distress can become too heavy to carry alone.
Some examples of common emotional triggers to nervous breakdowns include:
- Unresolved grief: When an event as devastating as losing a loved one happens, support from family, friends, and professionals is crucial for processing this loss. Moreover, if grief is particularly intense and interferes with day-to-day life, therapy, medication, and other treatment options are advised.
- Relationship conflict: When partners or family members continuously disagree, clear communication is essential. “Bottling up” emotions happens when we don’t air out what we think and feel in constructive ways. Negative feelings, when unexpressed, can become internalized. Over time, this can create an emotional burden and increase the likelihood of a breakdown.
- Intense care-giving responsibilities: Those who have dependents also need to also look after themselves. When we consistently dedicate all of our energy to tending to the needs of others, without sufficiently catering to our own, frustration, stress, and breakdown become more likely.
Psychological Causes of Breakdowns
Some people may be more predisposed to breakdowns due to mental health conditions such as:
- Anxiety: Anxiety is a feeling of fear, nervousness, or dread about the past, present, or future – often without an identifiable reason. It’s common for all of us to have anxiety at some point in our lives. However, for some, it can become an obstacle to living a relatively full and satisfying life.
- Depression: Depression is a persistent sense of low mood and hopelessness that typically interferes with daily life. It is a condition in which someone may lose interest in hobbies and interests they otherwise would have enjoyed. It can feel like losing your “spark” or sense of self, negatively impacting key areas of life such as career performance or maintaining relationships.
- Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD): Without the proper care and support, witnessing or experiencing trauma can make someone anxious, avoidant, and result in negative mood and patterns of thinking. Trauma-induced mental breakdowns can follow PTSD if people who have experienced trauma are not properly supported and treated.
Lifestyle Factors Causing Breakdowns
Modern life is fast-paced, and unhealthy habits can add to the strain. Lifestyle factors which could possibly contribute to breakdowns include:3,4
- Sleep deprivation: Adequate sleep is key for maintaining healthy cognitive function. Simply put, when someone is well-rested, they’re more likely to feel better and make better choices.
- Poor nutrition: Not having a healthy, balanced diet can make someone feel lethargic, “under the weather,” and lead to poorer mental health outcomes.
- Lack of physical activity: Exercise is a powerful tool in mood regulation. Even a brisk walk can make all the difference in fostering a positive mindset.
- Excessive screen time: Too much “doom scrolling” may serve as a distraction from uncomfortable thoughts for some. Additionally, looking at the bright light of your phone screen before bed can disrupt melatonin levels. Therefore, to get better rest, manage your screen time, especially before bed.
- Isolation or lack of support: It’s important to reach out to family and friends whenever you’re feeling like your mental health is struggling. Dealing with problems solo often means bottling up emotions and letting unaddressed negative feelings become internalized.
- Work pressure: Being overworked, especially when there’s perceived little regard for your welfare, is all too common in some modern workplaces. Without properly addressing pressures and coming up with solutions, career stress is inevitable. It’s also one of the lifestyle factors most linked to emotional burnout and mental health collapse.
How to Know if You’re Experiencing a Mental Collapse: Signs You Are Heading for a Breakdown
Recognizing the signs you are heading for a breakdown is key to preventing a full mental collapse. The symptoms often fall into three categories: emotional, psychological, and physical.
Emotional Effects of a Nervous Breakdown:
Some of the most common emotional signs of breakdown include:
- A feeling of persistent sadness or hopelessness
- Emotional “numbness” or feeling detached
- Sudden mood swings
- Irritability or emotional outbursts, such as anger
- Crying spells that happen frequently
These experiences can make it difficult to function day-to-day and may resemble or overlap with depression or anxiety disorders.5
Psychological Signs of a Mental Collapse
Psychological symptoms of breakdown often include:
- Difficulty concentrating or making decisions
- Racing or intrusive thoughts
- Paranoia or extreme worry
- Feeling out of touch with reality
- Withdrawing socially or becoming avoidant of others
These symptoms are your mind’s way of saying it needs rest and support.6
Physical Effects of a Stress Breakdown
Physical signs of breakdown can include:
- Chronic fatigue or exhaustion
- Sleeping not enough, or excessively
- Digestive issues such as constipation and diarrhoea
- Headaches and muscle pain, like feeling “achey”
- Increased heart rate or chest tightness
Some people also report dizziness, nausea, or tremors. These symptoms may mimic physical illness but are often tied to stress.⁷
Support Options During a Mental Health Crisis
If you or a loved one suspects, or is experiencing, a mental health crisis or mental collapse, the right support and treatment is essential. Here are some of the more widely available treatment and support options:
Medication
Medications can be helpful for managing overwhelming symptoms such as anxiety, depression, or sleep disturbances. It’s good to speak to your healthcare provider first, as they’ll be able to discuss the suitability of prescription medication such as:
- Antidepressants: First line antidepressants usually come in the form of SSRI’s (Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors). SSRI’s help to maintain high levels of serotonin in the body and combat persistent low mood. You may have heard of Prozac (fluoxetine) which is an example of an SSRI.
- Anxiolytics: Anxiety is a potential contributing factor to breakdowns. Anxiolytics can help alleviate some of the burden of feeling constantly worried, nervous or fearful.
- Mood stabilizers: These help regulate mood in people who have more severe mental health symptoms and don’t find other options effective.
It’s important to realise that medication doesn’t cure the root cause of breakdowns, but is still a valuable option in helping restore balance particularly in moments of crisis.6
Therapy Options
Therapy is a cornerstone of recovery from nervous breakdowns. The most effective and evidence-based types include:
- Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT): As humans, thoughts come and go in our heads, and we can tell ourselves all sorts of things, good and bad. However, some people may be more negative in their self-talk. For instance, they could make a mistake in work and tell themselves, I’m an idiot for doing that. Notice how this statement is very black-and-white, and harsh. CBT helps people reframe these thoughts, with the aim to turn such statements into something more compassionate and accurate, such as, I made a mistake, I’m only human, it’s okay. You can imagine how having thoughts like the latter means a lot less negative thinking and emotional strain over time.
- Eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing (EMDR): Past trauma can be stored in the body and mind and contribute to emotional breakdown. EDMR uses guided eye movements while recalling traumatic events to aid healthy processing and recovery.
- Mindfulness-based therapy: Mindfulness and meditation can be powerful tools in regulating emotions as they can prevent the mind from entering a negativity spiral. Additionally, when guided by a therapist, these tools allow you to observe your own thinking and allow for processing of challenging life events.
Therapists may also help identify burnout as a cause of breakdown, and guide clients in setting healthy boundaries at work or home.⁹
Support Groups
The opportunity to discuss mental health issues with others in the same boat is invaluable. Especially, as having conditions such as depression, anxiety, and PTSD, can be quite alienating and lonely experiences for some. Support group options include:
- Peer-led mental health groups (in person or online)
- Condition-specific groups (such as anxiety or trauma recovery)
- Family support groups for caregivers
Mission Connection: Supporting Your Mental Health and Recovery
Managing everything that comes with a mental breakdown can be very challenging. Mission Connection is dedicated to ensuring that the process of navigating a breakdown is as smooth as possible.
We recognize that medication alone may not address the root causes of mental health issues. However, our professionals but can combine it with therapy options, holistic approaches, and lifestyle changes to increase its benefits and improve your outcomes.
Mission Connection also provides online telehealth services, ensuring you receive care that fits seamlessly into your daily routine.
If you’re ready to explore our treatment options or have questions about medication, our team is here to assist you. Contact us today or complete our confidential contact form for more information.
References
- Kessler, R. C., et al. (2005). Lifetime prevalence and age-of-onset distributions of DSM-IV disorders in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication. Archives of General Psychiatry, 62(6), 593–602. https://doi.org/10.1001/archpsyc.62.6.593
- Dunkley, D. M., et al. (2017). Perfectionism dimensions and depressive symptoms: Evidence for a stress generation model. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 73(12), 1570–1586. https://doi.org/10.1002/jclp.22474
- Irwin, M. R. (2015). Why sleep is important for health: A psychoneuroimmunology perspective. Annual Review of Psychology, 66, 143–168. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-010213-115205
- Maslach, C., & Leiter, M. P. (2016). Understanding the burnout experience: Recent research and its implications for psychiatry. World Psychiatry, 15(2), 103–111. https://doi.org/10.1002/wps.20311
- American Psychological Association. (2023). Depression. https://www.apa.org/topics/depression
- Harvard Health Publishing. (2022). When stress becomes physical. https://www.health.harvard.edu/mind-and-mood/when-stress-becomes-physical
- Segerstrom, S. C., & Miller, G. E. (2004). Psychological stress and the human immune system: A meta-analytic study of 30 years of inquiry. Psychological Bulletin, 130(4), 601–620. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.130.4.601
- National Institute of Mental Health. (2022). Mental health medications. https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/mental-health-medications
- Hofmann, S. G., et al. (2012). The efficacy of cognitive behavioral therapy: A review of meta-analyses. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 36(5), 427–440. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-012-9476-1
- Repper, J., & Carter, T. (2011). A review of the literature on peer support in mental health services. Journal of Mental Health, 20(4), 392–3911. https://doi.org/10.3109/09638237.2011.583947
