Throughout life, people can experience several personal crises of different kinds, these being a sign that something in our life needs to be addressed, so it is important to detect all the signs and try to discover the origin.
And 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.
A personal crisis or life crisis are those moments of transition or change that are so difficult to face and that is normally why they tend to 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 have been caused by the same events (e.g., due to the pandemic that began at the end of 2019 due to the covid-19 virus, people have suffered various types of personal crises, such as family, health or economic crises, among others).
Some of the most common symptoms of personal crises that we could have are the following:
This does not mean that everyone who experiences a crisis will suffer all of these symptoms; However, this can serve as a guide for us to get an idea of the process we could go through when living such an experience in our lives.
The different types of personal crises
We can encounter 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 (e.g., experiencing an evolutionary crisis at the same time as a family crisis).
Below we are going to briefly explain what the different types of personal crises consist of and what could be the causes for them to occur.
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 (e.g., from the stage of adolescence to the stage of adulthood or from adulthood to the stage of maturity, etc.), some quite notable changes and because of it the person may have to rethink certain things (e.g., their beliefs, ideas, feelings, etc.).
Normally some evolutionary crises occur with greater intensity, such as those that develop during adolescence as it is a stage of great changes (e.g., physical development, need for greater independence and privacy, interest in romantic relationships, etc.) or upon reaching old age (e.g., retirement, changes in routine, etc.).
Furthermore, during these types of personal crises associated with evolutionary changes, a series of decisions need to be made in order to adapt to different levels, such as social or academic and/or professional, among others.
2. Family crisis
Here all those come into the picture 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 experience some complicated moments that revolve around our family. We could experience various types of family crises (e.g., asocial crises due to distance from or proximity to our relatives, associated with the interrelationships between our family members, complicated events within a family, etc.).
On the other hand, 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.
3. Crisis associated with illnesses or health problems
Among the different types of personal crises, you can find crises associated with illnesses or health problems, especially in those cases in which they are serious enough to lead a person to make several changes in their life in order to improve their condition. health or at least not worsen and thus try to have a higher quality of life. Additionally, these types of crises could develop over a long period of time depending on the severity of the symptoms being experienced and the severity of those health problems or illness.
On the other hand, these types of crises tend to be especially worrying when health problems involve major changes in a person’s life. Sometimes adjustments are necessary at a work and even social level In any case, it is essential that the affected person make the necessary changes to incorporate that experience into their life in such a way that they can address and assimilate it in the best possible way in order to suffer as little as possible.
You may be interested in: “Health Psychology: history, definition and areas of application”
Another type of personal crisis is what is known as social crisis, which would be those that occur due to situations in which recurrent and/or very intensive changes or instability occur in interpersonal relationships with people in the environment. habitual behavior of a person (for example, friends, co-workers, etc.), so that a person could feel overwhelmed by this.
In the face of this type of crisis, it is common 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 look for new friends with whom you can try to have healthier relationships and with fewer ups and downs or sudden changes around the bond that unites you.
On the other hand, social crises could also occur due to misfortune or any disaster that could alter the normal way of functioning within a community or society.
5. Economic crisis
Economic crises are also among the different types of personal crises, although this occurs at a global level; However, it can be included within personal crises since here we are referring to the way in which a person personally experiences an economic crisis that is affecting them both directly and indirectly, since You could experience a wide variety of changes in your life (e.g., seeing a noticeable reduction in salary or earnings, losing your 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 measures be taken to help people on a psychological level, instead of only seeking pragmatism believing that everything will be fine. fix with money and employment; although this is also important in this type of crisis. However, mental health should never be left aside and even more so in situations that trigger so many problems at a global level, such as economic crises.
In this classification of the different types of personal crises, it is worth highlighting love or relationship crises; are They could be triggered throughout a relationship that becomes unstable And even if two people are quite compatible and no matter how much they hang in the relationship, relationships demand a series of mutual adaptations between both members of the couple and, since each person is different, sometimes it is normal for a disagreement to arise. series of disagreements that must be resolved.
Faced with this type of crisis, depending on the severity, many times the people involved must make a decision about whether they consider that they should continue with their partner after resolving the problem that could have triggered the crisis or if, on the contrary, it is best It would be ending the relationship.
By this we do not mean that this type of crisis is because the couple’s relationship is toxic, since they could be triggered by various totally reasonable causes (for example, not agreeing on whether to have children or not, formalizing their relationship or not, leaving to live together, etc.).
7. Existential crisis
Finally, we are going to explain 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 lacks meaning could be behind it. In some cases, it could also come into play in this type of crisis confusion about one’s own personal identity or the inability to direct one’s life in search of purpose
When a person experiences an existential crisis, they may feel apathy and anhedonia and general dissatisfaction even in those cases in which things apparently are going well. It is also possible that you feel a feeling of strangeness with yourself and begin to question even your own decisions, with fear of the future being especially particular to this type of crisis by looking pessimistically.
As we have seen, there are various types of personal crises, all of which are important enough to significantly affect people’s lives, so it would be advisable to seek professional help when someone is suffering while experiencing a crisis. ; especially when this crisis lasts long.
