Be mad be free

When conditioning and societal pressure arise, having an “engaged mental breakdown” can be a useful response to an overburdened life.
 
When your brain is looking for respite, the very act of freeing yourself from ‘normality’ and engaging in the ‘abnormal’ can help you gain a new perspective that can trick your brain into thinking in new ways; to open up and learn to develop your own ideas, independent of the influences of your typical crowd. Try experiencing life in a manner different from the accepted existence.
 
Screaming, speaking to oneself, throwing stones down a hill, or engaging in a spontaneous, disruptive dance can immediately raise the endorphins in your bloodstream and produce strange answers to your emotional problems and lead you to a certain state of acceptance.
 
Becoming more compassionate with your mind, is accepting the need to break free from that ‘normality'; to release yourself from the bounds of societal norms and rediscover the part of yourself you have lost, before your return to normality.

Small indulgences before you even get to that state in the first place. can be far more rewarding. 
This may mean that you never lose touch with that vital sense of self in the first place.