The Nuance

What Does It Mean to Have a Nervous Breakdown?

It’s not a formal condition. But life events that are both unpredictable and uncontrollable can leave people vulnerable.

Markham Heid
Elemental
Published in
5 min readJul 18, 2019

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Illustration: Kieran Blakey

TThe “nervous breakdown” is getting media attention this month. Recent retrospective accounts of the Apollo 11 moon landing have mentioned

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Markham Heid
Elemental

I’m a frequent contributor at TIME, the New York Times, and other media orgs. I write mostly about health and science. I like long walks and the Grateful Dead.