Late Night: In Search of the Good Old Nervous Breakdown

April 15, 2008 12:53 am

Look what’s become passe… old-fashioned “nervous breakdowns.”

Hardly anyone mentions those anymore.

“I haven’t heard that term in years,” said Mike Fitzpatrick, executive director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, a national advocacy organization based in Arlington, Va. “’It’s from another era.”

The term — a vague catch-all phrase that could mean anything from a psychotic episode to having a bad day — is not a medical term, doctors say, but it was a popular one that was gentle, non-specific and therefore non-threatening, and could serve as a cover.

Don’t tell Mick and the boys…