» Dani’s Diary
Dani describes the true effects of suffering a nervous breakdown
Jennifer Lopez admitted to having a nervous breakdown in 2002. It happened while she was in her trailer filming a movie (one that was undoubtedly rubbish). This is what she said happened:
“I was like: ‘I don’t want to move. I don’t want to talk. I don’t want to do anything.’” Apparently, after she didn’t want to move, her bodyguard took her to a doctor where she refused pills and was told simply to “Go home and go to bed.” She said: “He told me to go back to work on Monday after a weekend of sleeping. So that’s what I did.”
Wow! Jennifer Lopez not only has everything she wants but her nervous breakdown lasted one weekend! Excellent, good for her – what a load of bull. It sounds to me (and I’m no doctor) that she was simply suffering from exhaustion.
When you have a nervous breakdown you are hit with all of the following in one fell swoop: heart palpitations; diaphoresis or perspiration; trembling or tremors; dyspnea; hyperventilation; chills; hot flushes; nausea; abdominal pain or abdominal cramping; chest pain; headaches; dizziness; light-headedness; faintness; tightness in the throat; tunnel vision; trouble swallowing; a sense of impending death; and feeling like one is experiencing a myocardial infarction (a heart attack). You do not freeze up and think to yourself, ‘I do not want to move’ and then have a lie down and feel better.
I had my nervous breakdown two years ago and I still feel all of the symptoms listed above every time I have to leave the house, every time I have to get on a bus, every time my phone rings, every time I go further than my regular place at lunch, every time I stay somewhere that isn’t my room, every time I go out of an evening.
“I am quite a convincing little actress and I can hide it quite well. That is until I get home”
You get the message, it is all the time. Not just occasionally – constantly! I am quite a convincing little actress and I can hide it quite well. That is until I get home and then I want nothing more than to sit quietly and build up some of the energy it took to force myself through the day.
Some days are better than others. That’s a general fact. And you will never be fully rid of these horrible feelings. You could have a run of a few days of feeling OK and then it all hits you again – and again and again.
The fact that people like Jennifer Lopez claim to have had nervous breakdowns and describe them like they do makes it a lot harder for people who genuinely have suffered and are still suffering with either a panic attack or panic disorder to explain it to other people. Firstly they think that because there are no obvious outward symptoms then there can’t be anything wrong. If you do manage to convince them that something is wrong, they either ask if there are any tablets you can take, tell you to go and get help or think the whole thing can be solved by eating more vegetables and having a cuddle.
Some people experience different things when having a nervous breakdown. But none of it can be solved by having a relaxing weekend or a lie down!
