A crisis management plan or crisis intervention is something no one bothers about. Oxford English Dictionary (OUP, 2003) defines ‘crisis’ as “a time of intense difficulty or danger, and a turning point of a disease, when it becomes clear whether the patient will recover or not.”
Some people can outwardly “carry” depression or problems well as if nothing is blatantly wrong while others are quite transparent about their feelings the way they outwardly manifest them.
Here are indications that can help determine whether crisis exists, or if there is a reason to worry or not. How a person reacts, and copes in a crisis, is determined by his or her overall wellness, attitudes, and experiences. A caring and supportive network of loved ones, family, friends and work mates can also matter.
Symptoms of a crisis can occur in three important basic human states: emotional, physical and mental. In all these states of a person's well-being, the 'normal signs' are usually temporary, whereas the the 'worry signs' recurs and/or lasts longer which is a cause for alarm needing professional help from physicians and/or crisis management consultants.
Emotional Symptoms of a Crisis
The normal signs that arise from emotions are exhibited when a person feels extreme grief, anxiety, and/or anger. Sometimes unpredictable and drastic mood swings happen. Such feelings can last for few weeks after the crisis, but then gradually become less severe.
On the contrary, the presence of numbness or detachment, and an attempt to deny this signals a worry sign. A person who feels this way or has been depressed for more than few days after the crisis needs to consult a physician or a professional counselor. This is common sense and no one should ever be ashamed to seek for help.
Physical Symptoms of a Crisis
Normal crisis signs that are temporary arising from physical symptoms include an experience of anxiety, shortness of breath, lack of appetite, palpitations, and insomnia may occur. The person may also experience frequent urinary, suffer diarrhoea or constipation, stomach problems, skin disorders, and dizziness.
The crisis or worry signs to be aware of is when pain and breathlessness become severe. If any symptom lasts longer than about two months or even less, or earlier after the crisis has passed, then a physician should be consulted for the first sign of warning symptoms. Stress intensifies certain physical reactions, for example, those people who already have a serious condition of heart trouble or high blood pressure.
Mental Symptoms of a Crisis
In the case of mental normal signs, which is temporary, a person feels confused, indecisive, and unable to concentrate or think properly during a crisis. It is therefore best not to make any major decision or to postpone it at this time.
The worry signs from mental symptoms of this nature is mainly a prolonged crisis that results in obsessive thinking in which the person can't seem to stop worrying or thinking about something. Other times he/she may have compulsive behaviour, nightmares, irrational fears, phobias, and sometimes experience auditory or visual hallucinations. A physician needs to be consulted, in like manner as the symptoms from previous ‘worry signs’ of physical and mental states.
The Need to Seek for Crisis Intervention
It is important to seek professional help once it is recognized that potentially serious signs of crisis are at hand, such as those enumerated as ‘worry signs’ occurring in the emotional, physical, and mental well-being of a person.
Continuous fatigue or exhaustion, depression and despair, fear of hallucinations or hearing voices, feeling of detachment and indifference, feeling of hopelessness, feeling of not being able to cope, lack or loss of fun and sense of humour, obsessive thinking or feeling, prolonged withdrawal from family and friends, and suicidal thoughts and tendency – all these are causes of concern which need professional intervention and guidance.
Interested readers may want to check out the following articles: How to Deal with Stress in Life, How to Cope with Life Changes, The Need to Watch Out for Signs of Life Crisis, The Causes of Depression and How to Avoid Them and When Depression Hurts: and Symptoms of Depression.
Sources:
Finding Strength Through Crisis. London: DK Book, 1996.
Spanes, Catherine, Ed. Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd Ed. Oxford: OUP, 2003.
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