4 Things I Follow To Prevent A Mental Breakdown

“Emotion, which is suffering ceases to be suffering as soon as we form a clear precise picture of it” - Victor F

Photo by Alex Iby on Unsplash

If you have decided to read this blog, I assume you too have faced a mental break down.

It could have been that day after a tough, work from home routine when you snuggled in your blanket or when nothing went as you had planned. When your dreams seem like a sci-fi movie, impossible!

Genesis of a breakdown

Let me explain the cycle of a non-pathological breakdown.

Photo by Author Aashi Sethiya

You may ask, why do I need to know this?

Trust me, when the aetiology is understood, solutions are better implemented.

Look at the cycle, carefully.

Imagine your life in this cycle, how a certain emotional event made you stronger.

You rewired to create strong neural networks for your emotions to accumulate.

These emotions become a norm.

The emotional overload makes you stronger and then eventually foolish.

Foolish because you aren’t getting stronger but fatigued.

Ultimately, you lose context over your daily tasks, your reactions become automatic and reflexive.

You feel that everything is under control and you can tolerate this. But the reality points towards an increase in your pseudo tolerance.

At this stage when you face a trigger a.k.a

• Work overload
• Deadlines
• High pitch angry noises
• Abusing
• A person/thing

These triggers will uncover your pseudo tolerance and give rise to

• Palpitations
• Sweating
• Feeling numb
• Overwhelmed

This cycle is bound to repeat again, in the near future.

But, obviously this article is here to save you.

Scroll further if your breakdowns are non-pathological. Please consult a specialist otherwise.

1. Stop pretending

Can you recollect the last time you smiled off that mean comment?

When you hid away your anger just to save that relation.

When you couldn’t understand what you were feeling?

Well, your answers are your guides.

Being pretentious has become second nature of humans. Every move has an unnecessary disguise to fool.

In reality you are fooling yourself.

Therefore, the answer is to

1. Start building a clearer picture of emotions you face on daily basis.

• The times when someone/something made you feel happy, unwanted, discouraged, overwhelmed, anxious.
• Please, identify the emotions. Don’t let it just wade off.

2. Vocalise the emotion, I don’t mean that you go on a anger spillage spree.

Nor does it mean that you cocoon yourself when you feel dejected.

But, telling yourself what you are going through.

3. Don’t fool yourself. Accept all the things your brain makes you feel. Post acceptance, it’s your turn to rationalise.

2. Code in the Context

Without context, content has no value.

Likewise, without our attention, or involvement there is no particle.

Particle in quantum = Accountable actions in real life.

When you start questioning that every move, you will feel the power to manifest context.

Can you ask yourself, why do you feel so dead to wake up each day?

Why has that last project not been done?

When we start breaking down our daily issues into small questions and put reasoning to the issues, we load ourselves less.

3. Identify fatigue

Everyone has intuition, we just need to tune in.

You may ask, Aashi why are you putting random quotes here?

Technically, this isn’t random. When we talk about intuition, why do we only relate it to external manifestations?

Can’t we use intuition to identify the limit of mental exhaustion. Why can’t we set a limit for our fatigue?

I create a mental note whenever I feel mentally exhausted after certain days. Reflecting back on those days I make a not whether it was a long call or a certain low self-esteem situation. I noted how these were affecting me and I tried to work on it.

Low self-esteem isn’t an easy topic to tackle and it takes serious dedication to get out of it.

You might have a much weirder fatigue factor. Identify emotions, thoughts that fatigue you. Rationalise it. If rationalising isn’t helping, try distributing it among people. Find your own drill to break the flow.(Easier said than done)

Don’t let anything create a backlog. Your emotions don’t need to be put on a backlog. That’s the worst crime you will ever commit.

4. Identify triggers

Triggers could be anything.

You can’t escape a trigger.

It could be a sad painting you saw on Pinterest. That super emotional post on Instagram or your Mom’s random comment on you.

I classify triggers into

1. Obvious
2. Random

Identify the obvious triggers.

Phase 1: Avoid trigger

Phase 2: Gradual exposure to trigger

Phase 3: Rationalise/Acceptance and peace with the trigger

Duration of each phase depends on the individual and it needs to be a gradual progression.

You have reached the end of the self help.

Scroll further for my super personal insights.

I had serious trouble sleeping at night alone. The darkness gave me anxiety and panic attacks. I had paranoia all the time.

My triggers were a series of thefts that had taken place in my building.

Tracking back I realised, I had also developed immense withdrawal from horror books/movies.

I traced back further, my core issues were from the trauma I faced in childhood. They all seeped back in the form of anxiety.

It wasn’t easy to quieten the noise from the past, it never will.

Although having certain tools help to mend the current state and obviously help with a sound sleep at night. ( I can do humour at times)

Remeber

For preventing future breakdown, incorporate this in your life-

1. Stop being pretentious
2. Find context in every task, behavior, reaction
3. Identify the point before fatigue, don’t increase emotional backlog
4. Identify and rationalise triggers

I’m a Physiotherapy Intern, who believes in living the philosophy I weave and speak. You can connect with me here.