The 7 types of personal crises

Throughout life, people can experience various personal crises of a different nature, these being a signal that something in our life must be attended to, so it is important to detect all the signs and try to discover the source.

And it is that a personal crisis could become an opportunity for growth, but to take advantage of it, it is important to understand how it affects us emotionally and what its implications are.

In this sense, there are various types of personal crises, and here we will see what they are and what characterizes them.

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What is a personal crisis?

A personal crisis or vital crisis are those moments of transition or change that are so conflicting to face and that is why they usually cause us to feel overwhelmed and think that we will not be able to get out of that situation. As we will see later, people could experience various types of personal crises throughout their lives.

On the other hand, some crises could become interrelated as they were caused by the same events (eg. For example, due to the pandemic that began at the end of 2019 due to the covid-19 virus, people have come to suffer various types of personal crises, such as family, health or economic, among others).

Some of the most common symptoms of personal crises that we could have are the following:

• stress and anxiety.
• Apathy, sadness and even depression.
• Having the feeling that it is difficult to find a way out or a solution to the situation that is being experienced.
• Obsessive worry.
• Isolation.
• Irritability.
• Insomnia.
• Disorientation and bewilderment.
• Emotional instability.
• Abandonment of personal care and loss of healthy lifestyle habits.
• Frustration.

This is not to say that everyone experiencing a crisis will experience all of these symptoms; however, this can serve as a guide for us to get an idea of ​​the process that we could go through when living such an experience in our lives.

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The different types of personal crises

We can find ourselves with different types of personal crises, each of them caused by different factors; although it should be noted that many of them could be interrelated or could also be experienced simultaneously (p. g., experiencing a developmental crisis at the same time as a family crisis).

Below we will briefly explain what the different types of personal crises consist of and what could be the causes for their occurrence.

1. evolutionary crisis

One of the types of personal crises would be the evolutionary crises that are associated with the various changes that occur in the different stages of life. They are usually related to some transitions that are marked by age.

When a person moves from one stage of life to another (p. g., from the stage of adolescence to the stage of adulthood or from adulthood to the stage of maturity, etc.) could be to develop quite remarkable changes and because of it the person may have to rethink certain things (p. g., your beliefs, ideas, feelings, etc.).

Normally, some developmental crises occur with greater intensity, such as those that develop during adolescence as it is a stage of great change (p. g., physical development, need for greater independence and privacy, interest in romantic relationships, etc.) or when reaching old age (eg. g., retirement, changes in routine, etc.).

In addition, during these types of personal crises associated with evolutionary changes, it is necessary to take a series of decisions in order to adapt to different levels, such as social or academic and/or professional, among others.

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2. family crisis

Here come into the scene all those altercations and complicated events that revolve around the family plane of people's lives.

It should be noted that the way we live our family experiences and also how we relate to the different members of our family, especially during our childhood and adolescence, marks us and, furthermore, when we live some complicated moments that revolve around our family, we could experience various types of family crises (p. g., asocial crisis due to estrangement or proximity to our relatives, associated with the interrelationships between members of our family, complicated events within a family, etc.).

Secondly, The family is a fundamental pillar in people's lives., so family crises can happen throughout all stages of life development and can also play an important role behind some personal episodes.

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3. Crisis associated with diseases or health problems

Among the different types of personal crises, crises associated with illnesses or health problems can be found, especially in those cases in which they have the serious enough to lead a person to make several changes in his life in order to improve his health or, at least not worsen it and thus try to have a higher quality of life. life. In addition, this type of crisis could develop over a long period of time depending on the severity of the symptoms being experienced and the seriousness of those health problems or that illness.

On the other hand, this type of crisis is usually especially worrying when health problems involve major changes in a person's life. Sometimes readjustments are necessary at the work and even social level. In any of the cases, it is essential that the affected person make the necessary changes to incorporate that experience in your life in such a way that you can approach and assimilate it in the best possible way in order to suffer the least possible.

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4. societal crisis

Another type of personal crisis are those known as social crises, which would be those that occur because of situations in which there are recurrent and/or very intensive changes or instability around interpersonal relationships with people in the environment habitual of a person (for example, friends, co-workers, etc.), so that a person before it could come to feel exceeded.

Faced with this type of crisis, it is usual for a person to take a series of decisions that are aimed at changing the way of relating to others and you may even opt for a change of environment in order to start from scratch and seek new friendships with those who try to have healthier relationships and with fewer ups and downs or sudden changes around the bond that the unite.

On the other hand, social crises could also come about as a result of misfortune or any disaster that could alter the usual way of functioning within a community or a society.

5. Economic crisis

Economic crises are also among the different types of personal crises, although this occurs globally; however, it should be included within personal crises since here we refer to the way in which a person personally experiences an economic crisis that is affecting him or her both directly and indirectly, as you could experience a wide variety of changes in your life (p. g., seeing a noticeable drop in wages or earnings, losing a job, having serious difficulty making ends meet, etc.).

It is worth mentioning that economic crises usually have a great psychological or mental impact on people, so it is important that take measures to help people psychologically, instead of seeking only pragmatism, believing that everything can be fixed with money and job; although this is also important in the face of this type of crisis. Nevertheless, mental health should never be neglected and more in the face of situations that trigger so many problems at a global level, such as economic crises.

6. Love or couple crisis

In this classification about the different types of personal crises, it is worth highlighting love or couple crises; these they could be triggered throughout a relationship that becomes unstable. And it is that although two people are quite compatible and no matter how much they hang in the relationship, relationships demand a series of adaptations of mutually between both members of the couple and, as each person is different, sometimes it is normal for a series of misunderstandings to arise that must be resolve.

Faced with this type of crisis, depending on the severity, many times the people involved must make a decision about whether they think they should continue with your partner after solving the problem that could have triggered the crisis or if, on the contrary, it would be best to end the relationship relationship.

With this we do not mean that this type of crisis is because the relationship is toxic, since they could be triggered by various completely reasonable causes (for example, not agreeing on whether or not to have children, whether or not to formalize their relationship, moving in together, etc.).

7. Existential crisis

Finally, we will explain the existential crises, which would be those that serve as a result of a series of internal conflicts of a person in which the idea that life has no meaning could be behind it. In some cases, it could also come into play in this type of crisis confusion about one's personal identity or an inability to steer through life in search of purpose.

When a person experiences an existential crisis, he may feel apathy and anhedonia and a generalized dissatisfaction even in those cases in which things seem to be going well. It is also possible that you have a feeling of strangeness with yourself and begin to question even your own decisions, being especially particular to this type of crisis the fear of the future when glimpsing so pessimistic.

As we have seen, there are various types of personal crises, all of them being important enough to significantly affect in people's lives, so it would be advisable to seek professional help when someone is suffering while living crisis; especially when this crisis is long-lasting.