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8 Ways To Deal With A Nervous Breakdown

By Samiat Agbaje
13 September 2021   |   1:02 pm
The most common symptoms of a nervous breakdown include depressive symptoms, such as loss of hope and thoughts of suicide or self-harm, anxiety with high blood pressure, tense muscles, clammy hands, dizziness, upset stomach, trembling, insomnia, hallucinations, extreme mood swings or unexplained outbursts or panic attacks. It can also include chest pain, detachment from reality…

8 Ways To Deal With A Nervous Breakdown

The most common symptoms of a nervous breakdown include depressive symptoms, such as loss of hope and thoughts of suicide or self-harm, anxiety with high blood pressure, tense muscles, clammy hands, dizziness, upset stomach, trembling, insomnia, hallucinations, extreme mood swings or unexplained outbursts or panic attacks.

It can also include chest pain, detachment from reality and self, extreme fear, and difficulty breathing paranoia, such as believing someone is watching you or stalking you, and flashbacks of a traumatic event, which can suggest undiagnosed post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

A nervous breakdown usually lasts for a few hours to a few weeks. If you experience this and need some relief, here are 9 tips that can help you get through it.

Reduce Social Media Usage
Minimise the use of social media as much as possible. The endless scrolling through feeds and timelines might not make you feel better, as seeing the happy version of friends and family lives online, while you can’t seem to get out of bed, will not be of any help. Instead, do something that calms you or makes you happy.
Try watching a film that doesn’t make you anxious or sad, get a book and immerse yourself into a story, which will make you feel good inside and calm your mind. These will help give you a break from the endless ruminating and worrying.

Meditation
Meditation may not be the solution for everyone, but it is good to try it at least once a day. Meditate on what you are grateful for in life and try to remember the good things that are still there in your life. Also, try to give yourself compassion for what you are going through, give yourself all the love you need, and meditate on things that you’re looking forward to in the future.

Ask for Help
One feels very lonely during a nervous breakdown, not because they don’t have friends or family to talk to, but because it can be draining to be around people. Try as much as possible to stay in contact with friends and family through phone calls or texts and you can also ask them to come over let them know they can’t stay too long.
As you are going through this, you may notice that some friends may decide not to be there for you. This can be painful, but it’s also a great way to learn which of your friends are true and help to know who to keep close to you. You can also ask your friends and family for their stories if they are willing to share.

Remember: You are not alone. We are in this together.

Listen to your Body
It is important to listen to our body when having a nervous breakdown. We may feel very sad or even depressed and that can make us feel sleepy. Many people who experience a nervous breakdown can also feel exhausted. As such, it is important to give our bodies the rest they need. However, oversleeping can cause dizziness and brain fog, which should be avoided at all costs. Make sure that you go for a walk at least once a day if possible and if going for a walk seems like too much, try some YouTube exercise or gentle yoga videos.

Self-care
You should try letting go of the guilt from experiences and give yourself space to heal. Engage in self-care activities like getting a massage therapist if you can afford it, buying yourself new outfits that make you feel good and fresh flowers, listening to your favourite songs and sing along if you have the strength for it, watching all the films on you’ve always wanted to but never have the time for, having as many warm baths as you can and using cultivation practices to feel good inside. Finally, create a bucket list of all the good things you want to do and can still do.

Communicate Your Needs
There is usually energy to carry out basic activities at times like this. It might be hard for us to pay some bills, carry out domestic chores, and complete other important tasks. We need help from our friends and family. Let them know about your situation and kindly ask for their help. However, not all of us are good at asking for help, and not all our friends are selfless enough to render any help. During a breakdown, we already feel fragile enough, so having to feel disappointed because a friend lets us down should be avoided at all costs. If they say or do anything that might hurt or annoy you in any way, do let them know gently. Not everybody knows exactly how to deal with someone in such a difficult situation, but people are willing to listen and learn.

Live in the Present
We often spend a lot of time worrying about the future or past experiences. During a nervous breakdown, tendencies can deplete and exhaust us even more. Try as much as possible to live in present, pay attention to tiny details and stay connected with your senses. Notice the warm water touching every part of your body when having a bath, and the scent of the bath oil or soap. Turn off the light and simply listen to the sounds that emerge out of the silence. Just become present, everything is OK.

Seek Medical Help
Amid a breakdown, we may feel the need to hide from the world and might feel physically weak, experience awful social anxiety that prevents us from leaving our house, or might just feel too depressed to leave the bed. For some, this might last for a moment, while most of us will need professional help from doctors who might prescribe medication to help you get through anxiety or depression and a therapist will help you with speaking therapy.

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