With midterms coming to a close, I have had my fair share of mental breakdowns. I would like to say I handle stress with ease and grace, but I don't. Like many, my breakdowns come in stages. They build up until everything just comes crashing down around me. During the fourth stage, you can probably find me in line to buy a pint of ice cream and a bag of gummy bears to prepare for the end.

1. Denial

The first stage of my mental breakdowns is when my world has collapsed but I insist that it is not. I could literally be on fire and still swear I had no problems.

2. Overly cheery

In order not to cry, I overcompensate with happiness. I do weird things like sing to myself and dance to no music, to keep me from thinking about the fact that I probably just failed a midterm. I laugh at every little thing and I don't stop laughing until the people around me start giving me strange looks.

3. "Joking" about dying

This is when I start to hint at the fact that I may not live another day. Start hinting that the world is actually too much. others think I am joking and I laugh with them but in my head, I actually believe my heart will give out in my sleep tonight.

4. Laughs that slowly turn into tears

This stage is the beginning of the end. Where you are literally on the brink of crashing, but you try to force just a little more laughter before the dam breaks, and you can't stop the waterworks.

5. Full on sobbing

This is the full meltdown, where all inhibitions are lost and you just go into fetal positive for an hour and ugly cry.

After my meltdowns, though, I always sleep like a baby, so there is a silver lining to being crushed by stress!