nervous breakdown

American  

noun

nervous breakdowns plural

1. (not in technical use) any disabling mental disorder requiring treatment.

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nervous breakdown British  

noun

1. any mental illness not primarily of organic origin in which the patient ceases to function properly, often accompanied by severely impaired concentration, anxiety, insomnia, and lack of self-esteem; used esp of episodes of depression

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• nervous breakdowns
  plural

Etymology

Origin of nervous breakdown

An Americanism dating back to 1900–05

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

nervous breakdown

In my mid 60s, I found myself divorced and on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 26, 2026

Another great performance in a go-for-broke horror flick about a woman well over the verge of a nervous breakdown.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 26, 2025

He married and divorced three times, having a nervous breakdown after splitting from third wife Peggy Lipton.

From BBC ● Nov. 4, 2024

Following a nervous breakdown in 2018, he left both the seminary and the conversion therapy group.

From BBC ● Jun. 1, 2024

Around that time he had begun to say and do things that, as Dr. Webb says, were signs of some sort of nervous breakdown or stress-induced mania.

From "Where Things Come Back" by John Corey Whaley