Could YOU have a breakdown?

by Beth McHugh | More from this Blogger

16 Aug 2006 02:32 AM

There isn't a person alive who is so strong, both physically and emotionally, that they are impervious to having a breakdown. Mental collapse can happen to anyone. Yet not everyone will experience clinical anxiety, depression, and other emotional disorders during the course of their lifetime. Why is that?

Most often, the ability to life to a ripe old age without incurring a major emotional hiccup is due to luck. Some people are simply fortunate enough to go through their life without serious trauma which would precipitate a clinical mental condition.

However, one of the major factors in determining whether or not a person will suffer a bout of mental illness severe enough to interfere with their personal and working life, is their childhood experiences.

Think of yourself as a house. You may be a very fine looking house, with lots of rooms, a favorable view, and lovely gardens. However, if the builder did not put in good solid foundations when this house was built, there may be problems further along the track. Sure, everything looks fine on the surface, but a heavy storm with high speed winds or a raging torrent passing down your street may show any flaws in your house's structure.

Those foundations can make all the difference to how your house tolerates the storms of life. The house which has been constructed using quality materials and good quality workmanship may sustain some damage from the flood or tempest, but basically remains sound and needs only a few minor repairs.

The house built on shaky foundations may collapse completely as a result of the disastrous conditions it has just experienced. It may well require years to repair and thousands of dollars to restore it to a safe place to life. Sometimes the house may suffer irreparable damage.

Humans are just like houses when it comes to surviving and enduring the stresses that life throws at us. Sure, some people seem to have very few difficulties in their lives and so their emotional strength is never really tested. Others suffer tremendous difficulties. Some break down as a result of these difficulties and their lives are severely affected, often for years. Others, who also experience severe life stresses may have a short period of breakdown, and then recover relatively rapidly after a period of months.

So why the difference? Again those foundations are important and it is the parents who are the principal foundation builders in a young child's life. Nurture can often override nature even given that a person may have a genetic predisposition for a particular mental disorder.

Often the difference between having a breakdown or not is one's own personal resources. These resources include our family background and how much love and support we received as children. This governs the way we feel about ourselves and our perceived ability to cope. If we were given positive messages about ourselves and what we achieve, we will more likely have the confidence in ourselves to believe we can overcome life's dilemmas. In fact, coming from a supportive family background will assist us to recover faster after a traumatic event because we have an instant support group to help us.

Not everybody is fortunate enough to have a strong "foundation" that has been formed carefully through childhood and adolescence and continues to sustain us as adults. These are the people whose houses looks good but do not survive life's hurricanes well. Prolonged periods of breakdown may occur.

In future blogs, we will look at how to improve the quality of your foundations so that you can best inoculate yourself against mental breakdown.

Contact Beth McHugh for further information or assistance regarding this issue.

Learn more about Beth McHugh

Beth McHugh began her career as a geologist and worked both in industry and as a university researcher.

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Megan Bayliss (3586) 16 Aug 2006 03:16 AM

Very good analogy Beth. I had an extremely supportive family as a child...and thank goodness they were around when my marraige broke down. For the only time in my adult life I was unable to work. I took 6 months off work because I couldn't concentrate or function. I cried every day for 2 years following my husband leaving. My family supported and loved me through the whole trauma. I know I am indeed fortunate to have them and I thank them for their protective care of me. My house was rebuilt but it took 6 months of rebuilding and then 2 years to take the scaffolding away. I needed it there just incase my new building required a paint touch up. To my family, thank you.

johnjfh (21) 20 Aug 2006 02:22 PM

Beth, you are wrong in the first part of your article: Your comment, "Mental collapse can happen to anyone" is factually incorrect and not supported by mental health research literature. There are a vast number of individuals who are remarkably resilient to life stress and do not exhibit defined emotional disorders in response to stress or trauma.

Furthermore, in the field of mental health there is no such thing or term as a "breakdown" or "a mental collapse." Stress or trauma may, in some people, precipitate anxiety, depression or PTSD…. In others it does not.

Your article perpetuates a fear inducing "myth" that the uninformed erroneously believe: that they may have a "breakdown" or go insane in response to stress. A high level of fear around these beliefs might indicate an anxiety problem, but it is usually only a false belief not based on fact or knowledge of the mental health field.

Your comments around the importance of the childhood and family are, of course, on target.

Beth McHugh (13211) 20 Aug 2006 04:02 PM

Psychologists do not use the terms "breakdown" etc in a clinical sense, but I am pitching these topics to the general public who do understand this "bag" term for a whole gamut of psychological disorders and can readily identify with it. In the opening paragraph I address the very fact than some people do not succumb to clinical depression etc. Rather than induce fear as you suppose, the article merely seeks to answer the question "Why some, and not others."