Prescription Drug Treatment
Individuals who suffer from various forms of stress disorders can suffer from crippling side effects. It can be extremely difficult to manage a normal personal and professional life in the most severe cases.
If you’ve ever suffered from stress, you can understand the emotional weight that comes with it. The overwhelming burden of stress can often bog you down, leading to further mental complications.
In reality, stress is a symptom that comes with a stress disorder. You can experience stress without having a stress disorder. Alternatively, you can suffer from a stress disorder and not even be aware of its presence.
There are actually multiple types of stress disorders, and each one can require different forms of treatment. What are stress disorders, and how are they identified placed into different groups?
What are Stress Disorders?
Stress itself is not considered a mental disorder, and many people will experience stressful situations when they are overwhelmed.
Certain stress disorders may result in symptoms like depression or anxiety disorders. It’s also possible that suffering a traumatic experience may produce stress-related symptoms that seem unrelated to the event.
Individuals experience impulses, aggression, inability to experience pleasure, insomnia, and disassociation in more severe cases. Intense stress-related issues can develop into other forms of mental illness or substance abuse known as co-occurring disorders.
Based on the DSM-5, there are three primary forms of stress.
Medicaid Accepted for Mental Health Treatment
Three Types of Stress
During psychological treatment, three forms of stress are used to categorize multiple types of these disorders.
Acute
Acute stress is one of the most experienced forms of stress. This version is defined by recent influences that may have led to overwhelming feelings. This may include dealing with a death in the family or pressures associated with work.
In certain situations, this type of stress may be caused by a helpful or exciting experience that is met positively at first. However, individuals may become exhausted as time goes on, leading to negative mental health effects.
For example, if someone is a thrill-seeker, they experience excitement from an otherwise stressful situation. This short-lived fear for their safety causes exhilaration, but it’s only temporary and subsides after their goal is accomplished.
The effect acts like a narcotic. In large doses, habits like this may become exhausting and result in symptoms of stress, headaches, and nausea.
Episodic Acute
In other cases, individuals may experience frequent episodes of acute stress. This is caused by an overwhelming and excessive sense of doom, fear of the unknown, overall pessimism, or overwhelming situations.
Many situations manifest this type of stress, including lifestyle, habits, work, or severe abuse and trauma. This type of stress may trigger migraines, high blood pressure, chest pain and can even lead to heart disease if left untreated.
Chronic
Chronic stress happens after extended, constant battles with Anxiety, fear, and other negative emotions. When an individual sees no way out of a painful or traumatic situation, chronic stress can be triggered. Specific situations include financial burdens, dysfunctional home environments, or being trapped in an unsatisfactory occupation.
Childhood trauma or recent traumatic events may cause chronic stress. A constant battle with extremely intense situations can desolate a person’s mental health over time. When individuals suffer from chronic stress, the risk of developing stress-related disorders is extremely high.
The most common symptoms of chronic stress are depression, suicidal thoughts, impulsive acts, and other mental and physical challenges.
In reality, these can be considered the underlying causes of stress disorders. Think of these different forms of stress as the stepping stones toward chronic stress disorders and other mental health challenges.
Before being diagnosed with stress and anxiety disorders, it’s important to understand the specific forms of these disorders. If left untreated, all of the previously mentioned forms of stress can lead to one or more of the following mental health scenarios.