For those people who are knowledgeable about stress, there’s a distinct difference between routine stress and acute stress. While routine stress is a part of everyday life in the hectic world of today, acute stress is a completely different animal. While stress is surely a problem, considering it may result in a weakening of the immune system, problems with memory, an inability to focus, and coronary disease, acute stress is something different.
Acute stress
In actuality, acute stress can actually cause a complete mental and physical breakdown. Acute stress is due to the most severe conditions. It’s frequently the result of threatened or actual death, serious harm, or some kind of bodily violation, such as rape. The man experiencing acute anxiety usually feels some type of revulsion or terror at the sight of this event, or by the experience of this event.
Then, after intense stress, the man is at serious risk of creating post-traumatic stress disorder. Furthermore, the experience of acute stress can have lasting, even permanent effects upon the individual who suffered the acute stress and they may be unable to fully adapt to life after the event. Acute stress is, at its heart, a kind of emotional trauma, not unlike bodily injury. The man or woman is in such a kind of psychological distress that the mind is practically incapable of coping with the stress and shuts down.
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The man who suffers from acute stress feels a sense of numbness and they cannot connect to the world outside. They can’t adapt to the reality that surrounds them and they are, in many ways, stuck at the moment when they suffered the acute stress. The issue with acute stress is that it produces a type of loop tape from the individual’s mind, where they always replay the event over and over again without being able to stop it.
The event is so totally consuming and yet so terrible that the man who lived through it continues to consider it till they are almost incapable of moving beyond it. Unfortunately, the outcomes of acute stress aren’t merely restricted to inward issues. If left unattended, acute stress can lead to anxiety, inability to concentrate, post-traumatic anxiety disorder, as well as nervous breakdown. Thus, acute stress is no small matter.
Nowadays
In actuality, it has to be dealt with quickly so as to avoid serious repercussions upon the brain. If the signs of acute stress, such as detachment, anxiety, or a general desire to prevent anything which may remind the individual of the function that resulted in the acute stress, it’s usually believed that the acute stress has transitioned into post-traumatic anxiety disorder. Thus, whoever has suffered acute stress should look for some type of treatment so that this doesn’t occur. The first kind of therapy which comes to most peoples’ heads is psychotherapy.
The sessions with a psychiatrist or psychologist are familiar to people and they are quite helpful for treating acute stress. However, lots of folks shy away from psychotherapy just due to the stigma attached to it. Another method of treatment for acute stress is cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). CBT is designed to help people deal with their issues or anxieties through a combination of remedies all working toward the same aim.
The cognitive part of CBT treats the brain and makes it think differently about its own memories. Then, the behavioral section assists the person by exposing them to things that will force them to face their fears or their own problems. The behavioral technique is already recognized as a treatment for migraines as well as the cognitive therapy is recognizable from psychotherapy. However, by combining these approaches into a holistic therapy, CBT can bring about some very good outcomes.
Medication
Another way of combating acute stress and its aftermath is through medication. Depending on the symptoms, a physician may prescribe an antidepressant, an anti-anxiety medication, or maybe another type of medication. However, individuals have to be very careful with these mood-altering drugs, because they do tend to change the way they think. Thus, people taking drugs such as these must monitor themselves and see how they respond to their effects.
Conclusion
Overall, acute stress is manageable and it’s treatable. And it ought to be treated, as it may result in depression, anxiety, post-traumatic anxiety disorder, and even a complete mental breakdown. Though people might think that they’re handling it fine, acute stress is a kind of mental trauma that’s basically comparable to physical trauma; the more severe the injury, the more acute the results on the individual. Thus, anyone who has suffered from a traumatic experience that does not appear to want to go away should seek treatment as soon as possible. Though individuals can’t change what happened to them, they can do something to avoid the memories of it from taking over their lives.
