It's the stress that does it

What is a breakdown, exactly? "...depressed patients' mental suffering led to a sort of 'breakdown' in the stress system, resulting in low levels of stress hormones." So it's basically when your immune system stops working well. Remember before we talked about the immune system and the role it plays in depression? Well this is another study talking about immune response. It's interesting that a breakdown can have biological implications.

I was really stressed out before my breakdown. Everything was wrong in my life, it seemed. My job was absolutely horrible, my living situation was disgusting, and my life was one drunken night after another. It wasn't any way to live, really. It all became too much, and I suppose what happened is my immune system broke down, and allowed me to become suicidal.

It's interesting that a breakdown of stress would allow you to hit a breaking point. You would think suicidal people would have more cortisol in their systems. So I suppose if you're still feeling stress, you're ok.