re: When did you see a friend or acquaintance have a nervous breakdown and what

I took a bunch of mushrooms in Amsterdam and got lost from all my friends which led to a bad trip which then led to a panic attack. Was not fun ended up pissing my pants in public.

Happened to me before. Not as bad. Coming back from Florida one year after a night of drinking very heavily. Seems to be the common theme. Doctor basically told me it was your body's blood glucose level dropping below normal levels--like hypoglycemics. This abnormal physical feeling triggers the anxiety and other mental symptoms associated with panic attacks.

In short, you freak out because of the foreign substances you put in your body the night before.

After I graduated from UGA in the mid 90s, me and 3 friends rented a loft in Downtown Athens to spend a year enjoying the Athens scene.

We all smoked weed fairly regularly but one roommate started doing harder drugs. He was also a heavy drinker whose step dad molested him as around 12 (Found this out just before he when totally crazy.) His told his therapist who his mom had him seeing around age 16 and the therapist told authorities. His mom convinced him to say he lied and fabricated the story. Messed his head up but I knew nothing of this before we got closer as friends.

Anyway, he started losing his mind and getting more delusional by the week. Me and another roommate were watching TV one night and he comes walking in to the loft living room wearing a wig, a bathrobe, makeup and holding a chefs knife. Me and my roommate just exchanged glances like " it's about to get real up in here" and I said "Dan, you are kind of freaking us out buddy. How about putting that knife down." He just stood there for about 5 long seconds with me and my roommate ready to move and on the edge of our seat. He finally started laughing and said "man, you guys were scared as shite" and walked back to his room.

Next night we came home and our kitchen floor was flooded with water and all pots and pans , bowls, plates, glasses, utensils were spread all over the floor. He walks in about 30 minutes later and I ask him what the hell happened. He said he had seen a couple of roaches and was trying to drown them. Had dumped buckets of water up into the lower cabinets to draw them out.

After several more episodes of craziness and friendly counseling, he kept getting worse. We finally called Charter to get him admitted. He stayed there two weeks and they released him because he had shown great improvement and he said he was ready to start a new life.

Within a week, he started back on drugs and drinking and just exhausted us with worry and anxiety. We go out one night and when we were approaching our street and our loft, I notice cops up in my place. Also saw all types of stuff on the sidewalk below including both of my sound system speakers all broken up. I walk up and told the cops I lived there and asked what was going on. He asked if I knew the guy who was curled up on the ground in handcuffs and wearing only boxers."Yes, he is my roommate. What happened?" He proceeded to tell me that Dan had been in the bar below our loft and was buying rounds of shots for dozens of people saying he had won the lottery. When it was time to pay up, he argued with the bartender and owner and ran out to the sidewalk and straight to the door that led up to our place. We had 6 floor to ceiling windows and he starts screaming at the owner of the bar below and tossing everything from dishes to my speakers down below. Of course, the drunks were egging him on and taunting him.

Cops showed up and gained entry and arrested him. He was manicly telling them to call the President of the U.S. to vouch for him and that knew who they( the cops) were and that they had been spying on him for months.

Dude just lost it and I never saw him again until 16 years later when he found me on FB. He apologized over and over again and told me about his wife and kids, etc.. Was very happy to see he found some redemption and that the evil that had followed him from childhood through the dam busting did not kill him. We are still in touch a few times a year.

Wow. Just, wow.

I don't know if it's anxiety, but I have a friend that will bail on an event after months of planning for it. Perfect example was Hangout Fest 2014. We were both really excited to see Outkast close out the show that Sunday evening. Talked about it for weeks. The weekend of the festival arrived. Despite having paid for VIP tickets he only did about 3 hours of Friday, skipped Saturday to go on a party boat in Orange Beach, and bailed on us Sunday to drive back to Baton Rouge early.

It's the day before that gets me.