Why do leaders go through a nervous breakdown?

Leadership is a difficult job that necessitates a great deal of sacrifice, and CEOs are sometimes considered as heroes or gods to be worshipped.

This way of thinking keeps CEOs under pressure to be superhuman and hide their vulnerabilities and issues behind closed doors, which can have disastrous implications. When the cameras aren’t rolling, though, the job’s great constraints and the psychological extremes required to get there begin to show.

Dr.  Daniel K. Hall-Flavin, M.D. of Mayoclinic writes that people sometimes use the term “nervous breakdown” to describe a stressful situation in which they are temporarily unable to function normally in daily life. When life’s obligations become physically and emotionally burdensome, it’s thought to happen. The phrase was once widely used to describe a wide range of mental illnesses, but it is no longer used by mental health experts.

Half of the first 37 presidents of the United States (1776-1974) were troubled by mental illness, according to a study by Jonathan Davidson of Duke University Medical Center and colleagues, who evaluated biographical materials for the first 37 presidents of the United States (1776-1974).

According to Finds LifeWay and Focus on the Family, over one-quarter of pastors (23%) admit to having “personally struggled with mental illness,” with half of those pastors stating that the disease has been diagnosed.

Michael Freeman, a psychologist and psychology professor, recently conducted research on mental health issues among entrepreneurs. A total of 49 percent of the 242 entrepreneurs polled said they were dealing with mental health issues. Depression was the most commonly reported ailment, with 30% of subjects reporting it.

(Compare that to the U.S. population in general, where only 7% report themselves as depressed.)

According to a Vistage (an international organisation for CEOs) poll, all 2,400 CEOs who participated said they were stressed. External factors, such as an uncertain economy, might cause CEO stress. Your body and mind might also contribute to CEO stress. While stress can be a tremendous motivator, it can also stifle critical thinking and creativity, which are essential for leadership. Stress induced nervous breakdown can have a negative impact on your mental, physical, and emotional health. Learning how to manage CEO stress and handle nervous breakdowns is an aspect in learning how to be a CEO to some level.

Nervous breakdown isn’t a medical phrase, and it doesn’t refer to any particular mental condition. However, this does not imply that it is a typical or healthy stress reaction. What some individuals refer to as a nervous breakdown could be a sign of an underlying mental health issue that needs to be addressed, such as nervous breakdown, depression, or anxiety.

The symptoms of a nervous breakdown differ from person to person and are determined by the underlying cause. What exactly constitutes a nervous breakdown differs from one culture to the next. It’s generally taken to signify that a person can no longer function regularly.

A nervous breakdown in a leader is common; for example, he or she may be:

• Calling in sick for days or weeks at a time.
• Missing appointments and avoiding social activities.
• Having problems sticking to healthy eating, sleeping, and hygiene routines.

A nervous breakdown might manifest itself in a variety of other strange or abnormal behaviours.

Why Has There Been a Neglect in Leaders’ Mental Health?

In general, leaders are not viewed as people exhibiting  an outburst or displaying emotional responses. It is more likely seen as displeasing if a leader is not firm and not in control. Well, we do not promote any taboo regarding mental breakdowns. However, there are a couple of arguments as to why there is a considerable neglect of a leader’s mental health.

1. One argument is that because leaders are regarded ethically responsible for the well-being of their workforce, they are unworthy of our empirical attention. Nothing in the literature directly supports this point of view. However, as a result of this, researchers may feel more compassion for employees, who endure higher levels of job stress than managers or business owners.
2. A second possibility is that leaders ought to have positive psychological well-being, making any research unnecessary; in other words, they have less job stress, are more resilient, or have more resources, ensuring that any job stress they do have is buffered and thus does not affect their leadership, their employees, or their organisations. There may be some evidence to back this up. Leaders would have more access to the status, social and organisational resources, and job control that are crucial for mental health as they progress up the social ladder.

However, we believe that the most logical reason for leaders’ mental health at work being neglected is not whether they genuinely have better mental health or not, but how their well-being is viewed by others, including researchers.

Two different hypotheses point to how followers and the general public see leaders and leadership in this regard.

Employees, coworkers, and subordinates, on the other hand, are regularly identified as vulnerable to mental and physical sickness, according to recent qualitative findings (Cloutier & Barling, 2016). These views may be shared by scholars in the field, which may explain why there has been so little empirical research on leaders’ mental health.

Causes of Nervous Breakdown in the C-Suite

In addition to the obstacles faced by lower-level employees, many executives believe they confront additional challenges as a result of their high-ranking position:

1. The burden of being responsible for the firm’s performance, former and current employees, and the customers/clients the company serves
2. The requirement to be “bulletproof,” completely committed, and ready at all times.
3. As the company’s public face, they must always bring their “A-game” and be successful in whatever they do.
4. As they handle market uncertainties, the perceived impact on their reputation and credibility

In today’s world, an executive post typically mixes the fear of not delivering with increasing expectations, as well as heightened scrutiny from social media and the general public. Corporate leaders are under more stress than ever before as a result of the pandemic and the rapid move to remote employment. In other words, the stakes are high.

Both a leader’s health and family life can suffer as a result of being in the C-suite. This has an impact not just on the individual at home, but also on how they present themselves at work, which has an impact on employees and the entire organisation. Indeed, a nervous breakdown in the C-suite can affect your judgement and decision-making, as well as cause delays in execution, but it can also spread throughout the organisation. Your mental breakdown, stress, worry, or depression might have a significant impact on your upper management and their reports.