The Breaking Point

Many people are tricked into breakdown. A sudden or prolonged state of stress may sensitize adrenalin-releasing nerves to produce the symptoms of stress in an exaggerated, alarming way. This state of sensitization is well known to doctors, but so little known to people generally that, when first experienced, it may bewilder and then dupe its victim into becoming afraid of it. If asked to pinpoint the beginning of nervous breakdown, I would say that it is at the moment when a sensitized person becomes afraid of the sensations produced by severe stress and so places himself in a cycle of fear – adrenalin – fear. In response to his fear, more adrenalin is released and his already sensitized body is thus stimulated to produce even more and more intense sensations, which inspire more fear. This is the fear – adrenalin – fear cycle.