Name: nervous breakdowns
Uploaded: 2022-07-23T17:12:19.000Z
Duration: 10 min 3 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

the term nervous breakdown first appeared in a 1901 medical treaties for physicians.

Basic passive voice

It is a disease of the whole civilized world, said its author and it was built on the work of a gilded age dr George miller Beard who posited that we all had a set amount of nerve force which could be depleted like a battery by the stress of the modern life.

Beard argued that an epidemic Of nervous disease had been unleashed by technology and the press which accelerated everything.

In 1881, he wrote, the chief and primary cause of this very rapid increase of nervousness is modern civilization.

It took me a while to sort of realize that my panic attacks where my body's way of telling me that I was overwhelmed.

I would be doing something very mundane getting ready for the day or snacking in the kitchen and all of a sudden, like my entire body would start shaking.

I'd hyperventilate and I'd have to sit or lay down until it subsided.

I emotionally disassociate in order to power through and accomplish what needs to get done.

It's an incredible strength that has come in handy and many, many times in my life.

But the downside is that I don't know when things Are too much until my body literally shuts me down.

Scott Fitzgerald said it the most hashtag related Lee in his 1936 essay, the crack up, he'd found himself quote like a man over drawing at his bank.

I began to realize that for two years my life had been drawing on resources that I did not possess, that I had been mortgaging myself physically and spiritually up to the hilt end quote.

I was talking to my friend in february of 2020 and I said, I feel like I'm on the verge of a mental breakdown.

There's just so much to do, so much that's expected of me and I don't even feel like I have a chance to breathe.

I'm also having regular panic attacks again.

There's no room in my schedule to until april if I make it that far.

And then the pandemic hit and I'm not gonna lie.

I was so excited to rest and relax and recharge for a few months.

But instead we went into an entire year of us in survival mode.

There were apocalyptic levels of death on the news.

What felt like the brink of civil war, climate change creeping ever closer while we argued about what color we have affixed to our skeletons, billionaires made 3.9 trillion during the pandemic And banks had their most profitable year ever scoring $30 billion in overdraft fees, domestic abuse, suicide, depression alcoholism and drug abuse were surging pets were adopted during lockdown and then promptly returned as restrictions loosened.

Political chaos reigned supreme and like clockwork mass shootings returned to their regularly scheduled programming as the world opened up and that's just everything going on outside.

In addition to that dumpster fire for me during the pandemic, a friend died, a soccer showed up to my house and I had to go to court and get a restraining order.

I went back to court to testify for two friends, restraining orders against the abusive ex partners.

I was estranged from my father for half the year.

I broke up with the best friend and then I got ghosted by a 50 year old man.

So you know, this is all the context that you have when I sat down to write a comedic Youtube video for internet content and uh I pretty abruptly had a nervous breakdown and bo Burnham's words echoed in my existential crisis.

Should I be joking at a time like this and I would almost amend it to how can I joke at a time like this, luckily I have great friends and one of them sent me a podcast episode from terrible Thanks for asking that covered emotional meltdowns.

And in this, they cite this amazing article by jerry Useem called bring back the nervous breakdown.

So in 1935, Fortune magazine introduced its readers to this concept and then they reprinted a book where it cited experts in mental health that deemed the nervous breakdown to be as widespread as the common cold and cheapest source of misery in the modern world.

It could be precipitated by nearly anything and it prevented one from carrying on the business of normal living.

The solution for a nervous breakdown Was a time out, a license to withdraw and for about 80 years after this, proclaiming that you had a nervous breakdown was a culturally acceptable and legitimized way of declaring emotional bankruptcy.

Hi, I'd like to withdraw 15 hours of writing time.

You don't have enough in your account right now to cover that.

You have about three hours of riding left.

Can you charge me an overdraft fee or can I open a line of credit to get my remaining 12?

I'm so sorry, I can't do that for you this week.

I do see you have two full days of recharging available and after you withdraw those funds, you'll be able to access your next reserve.

Okay, well I guess I don't have a choice.

Oh, and then can you also check how much Gamestop stock I have now?

Moon Diamond Hands, that's all I'm saying.

And the best part of the nervous breakdown was that it focused on the sociological symptoms instead of our personal issues.

It insinuated that the fault lies with the outside world and its unbeatable demands.

Not some weakness or inability to cope on our part.

The nervous breakdown provided sanction for a pause and reset that could ultimately put you back on track.

But according to you seem in the mid sixties the nervous breakdown was pushed aside by the rise of mass market prescription driven psychiatry.

The developing field had little use for an affliction that could be treated without the assistance of physicians, diseases like major depressive disorder, generalized anxiety disorder and obsessive compulsive disorder, diagnosed and treated by specialized doctors.

Dispensing specialize drugs replaced the nervous breakdown.

Catch all acknowledges that this did do a bit of good right.

Many people with psychological ailments gained access to medical treatments that could be effective but we also lost something.

Peter stearns, a social and cultural historian of the nervous breakdown at George Mason University said that the nervous breakdown played a function.

You didn't have to visit a psychiatrist or a site.

Ecologists to qualify for a nervous breakdown.

You didn't need a specific cause you were allowed to step away from normalcy.

The breakdown also signaled a temporary loss of functioning like a car breaking down.

You know it may be in the shop sometimes recurrently but it didn't signal an inherited or permanent state.

Stern said that the psychiatric approach tends to say you have a specific problem.

We're here to fix your problem independent of what's happening to everyone else.

Whereas the nervous breakdown was not a medical condition but a sociological one.

And perhaps one of the reasons we're in such hustle culture today is because of the lack of a time out.

Like we live in a culture that is quick to label anyone who is seen as taking a break as lazy or a slacker or weak.

We seem argues that we should bring the nervous breakdown back to protect the nation's collective reserve of nerve force at a time when it's stretched so thin and I am inclined to agree.

He suggests we may be changed the language to accommodate american culture by rebranding it as like a power brake or power up and it strikes me as horribly sad that we need to apply masculine layers to emotional vulnerability in order to hopefully get this accepted into our lexicon.

Hey listen I came to say, I think I'm gonna take a little power little power break little dude, I love that for you.

Power play away my man and then come back ready to tackle the final boss but not me.

Did I hear someone powering up into here.

Okay Freaking type dude power up level 9000 in this seriously though.

I really want to thank you so much for all of your hard work.

You deserve this time off and more than that.

I want to thank you for being honest and speaking up about what you need.

Of course you know I love working here and in order for me to continue to do my best work, I need to take this time for rest and relaxation.