Types of Crisis

What is Psychological/ Mental Health Crisis?

A psychological crisis is a life event that an individual perceives as stressful to the extent that normal coping strategies become insufficient. Everyone responds to an incident differently. One person may be deeply affected by an event while another individual suffers from little or no ill effects. Psychological crisis includes traumatic stress and psychiatric emergencies.

Traumatic stress results from external stressful situations that are sudden and unexpected. Examples include rapes, accidents, natural disasters, bereavement, sexual assaults, etc.

Psychiatric emergencies are crisis situations in which one’s general functioning is severely impaired, and when one becomes unable to maintain responsibilities for oneself due to his/ her mental conditions. His or her judgement is also affected. One may need urgent medical attention.  

References

• Cherry, K. (2019, June 17). Psychological crisis types and causes. Verywellmind. 
• Okun, B., & Kantrowitz, R. (2015). Effective helping: Interviewing and counseling techniques (8th ed.). Stamford: Cengage Learning.