7 Ways A Crisis Increases Stress and How To Fight Them

By The Rev. Christopher Smith. Posted on Nov 9th 2012.

When a crisis occurs, stress goes up. Learn to identify this and fight the negative effect.

ed. When a crisis hits, your body naturally reacts to give you what you need to fight or flight. As time goes on, this natural reaction wears off and this is complicated by the fact that the novelty of responding also begins to wear off. Fighting this requires you to be proactive and to pace your response. After Hurricane Sandy, some volunteers tried to still work their regular job and volunteer through the night. They quickly became burned out and too tired to continue. Other volunteers paced themselves, responding for a few shifts and they are still energized to continue to help over the long haul.

May realize that others are not as committed to working over the long haul to truly get past the crisis. If you are the person in the crisis and others are not committed to the long term nature of working to a solution, this can be very demoralizing and this sense of isolation will leave you feeling stressed. If you have control of this, the best solution is to get others to be more committed to the long haul at the outset. If you cannot do this, then control what you can – you. Make sure that you remain committed to working on the long term solution to the effects of the crisis and that you nurture your motivation.

By paying attention to the stress you experience in connection with a crisis (regardless of its source), you can do things to counter that stress. Doing so, will help you to maintain wholeness and peace in your life, thus reducing the negative impact of the stress allowing you to address the crisis.

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The Rev. Christopher Smith

Counselor/Therapist

The Rev. Christopher L. Smith, LMFT has served as a national leader around mental health issues both within the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and in professional counseling organizations. He works directly with individuals, couples, families and supervisees as the Clinical Director of Seeking Shalom in New York City. He also brings his insight to help a wider audience through writing, speaking and consultations.

Location: New York, NY

Credentials: LAC, LMFT, LMHC, MDiv, MS, SAP

Specialties: Couples/Marital Issues, Forgiveness, Spiritual

Website: http://www.SeekingShalom.org

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