I receive emails from people bewildered to why they suddenly felt
like this, I then ask 'Have you been under a period of stress
recently?' they reply with, 'Well my mother has been ill recently, my
partner left me 6 months ago, my daughter has just left home and I
lost my job a couple of months ago, not until I ask them do they
realise the stress they have been under for the last few months, all
this stress takes its toll on the body.
What I had was a nervous breakdown. This basically occurs because
your body can only take so much. When you are going through a
prolonged period of stress and worry, your body cannot cope so it
sort of shuts down. It has reached breaking point and has said enough
is enough. This may lead to feelings of anxiousness, feelings of
panic, and the feeling of detachment. It does not matter what the
symptoms are, it is your body saying "I can take no more". This is
where the word breakdown comes in, because that is really all it is.
Now all your body is asking for is a rest and time to rejuvenate
itself. Do we give it that time? No! Through no fault of our own, we
then worry about these symptoms, worry we are going mad and wonder
why we feel so tired and emotionless. This puts more worry and strain
on our already tired body and we may begin to feel worse. We tell
ourselves we must get a grip of this thing, so we fight it and worry
even more. Well I think you can now see why these symptoms persist.
This is exactly what I did for all those years while I suffered. In
fact I was worrying because I had been ill so long and my days were
filled with fighting and worry....

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/panicpml