Adjustment Disorder: When Sudden Change Overwhelms Your Ability to Cope
Adjustment Disorder Is a Mental Health Condition
Have you or someone around you ever faced a stressful event or sudden change that was hard to adjust to — to the point where you started struggling to manage your emotions, showing unusual behavior such as increased anxiety, sadness, irritability, or inappropriate aggression, which reduced your ability to function in daily life?
Let’s get to know “adjustment disorder.”
Adjustment disorder — sometimes described as “abnormal stress” — is a mental health condition that can affect people who struggle to cope with stress or with events and changes that affect them emotionally, and who often cannot come to terms with, accept, or adapt to the situation. Their body and mind respond to the situation negatively, which can lead to further mental health problems.
If a difficult experience causes disappointment, sadness, or grief, but the person is still able to return to a normal state and manage their emotions within a reasonably short time — especially with encouragement from people around them or from themselves — that’s a normal response. But if sadness persists almost continuously without fading, and starts to cause unexplained physical symptoms, then it’s important to understand how to manage stress and build strong mental health to cope with difficult situations at any time. So what exactly is abnormal stress?
The causes of abnormal stress can come from many sources, including:
• Internal factors such as illness, developmental stage, attitude, personality, and chemical imbalances in the brain that cause stress, anxiety, and sadness, along with each person’s underlying mental health and ability to regulate their emotions
• External factors are usually related to one’s environment and surrounding society, such as:
Work/school: problems with a boss, subordinates, or coworkers, being bullied, workload, workplace stress, pressure at work, and racing against time
Relationships: problems with family, a partner, or friends, leading to accumulated stress that reduces tolerance for pressure, loss of emotional control, conflict or resorting to physical confrontation to resolve problems, which can lead to family breakdown and a higher risk of anxiety disorders, depression, alcohol dependence, drug dependence, and problems with emotions and personality
Health: physical illness such as diarrhea, general sickness, headaches, chronic conditions, or serious illness, along with changes in sleep, insomnia, restless sleep, and resulting irritability or sadness
Life changes: loss in life, illness of a family member, having to leave a job, or changing jobs
Unpredictable events, or situations outside a person’s control, are the kinds of things that create this kind of stress — emotional and behavioral symptoms that emerge within 3 months of the triggering event and last no more than 6 months after the person is able to manage the stress. This falls under a category of psychiatric conditions that can fully resolve.
The Effects of Stress
• Physical: the physical symptoms of stress that most people are familiar with — headaches, stomach aches, nausea, vomiting, gastritis, heart palpitations, hand tremors, shortness of breath, sweating, cold hands and feet, irregular periods, itchy rashes, muscle pain, ischemic heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke leading to paralysis, and reduced immune system function. Long-term accumulated stress is also linked to the development of various other diseases.
• Mental and emotional: stress leads to mood swings and instability, sometimes greater irritability or clearly noticeable depression. Signs of emotional impact can include preoccupation, rumination, anxiety, gloominess, depression, irritability, restlessness, feeling unsafe, repetitive thinking loops, paranoia, hopelessness, low self-esteem, indifference to one’s surroundings, distraction, lack of focus, and edginess.
• Behavioral: noticeable changes in behavior, such as loss of appetite, insomnia, crying easily, lack of motivation to do anything, impatience, becoming bored easily, reduced performance at work, frequent conflict with others, starting to withdraw from society, neglecting self-care, and becoming aggressive, unruly, or emotionally volatile. Many people turn to smoking, drinking, sleeping pills, or drugs as a way to cope with stress — which may relieve it only briefly while harming their health. Some may develop distorted thinking and make impulsive decisions that ultimately lead to suicide.
How to Prevent Adjustment Disorder
Learning to adapt to situations can help you face stressful circumstances on your own — for example, staying optimistic, building mental flexibility to cope with stress, and respecting and valuing yourself — or you can consult a psychiatrist for help maintaining your mental health.
Adjustment disorder can be a condition that catches even you by surprise. If you notice someone close to you showing the behaviors described above, including unlawful behavior such as taking sleeping pills in excess without a prescription or using drugs, this can make everything worse. But every situation can be resolved with the right expert guidance and support.
Day One is a center that helps treat and rehabilitate people struggling with drug addiction, alcohol addiction, or adjustment disorder that has led to drug dependence. Our drug treatment center has specialists dedicated to rehabilitation, and offers a range of activities designed to improve the emotional and mental state of people with addiction. We also help people in treatment develop social skills and the ability to live alongside others, so they can return to a normal, effective life.
For more information, contact us at 99/1 Moo 6, Si Chula, Mueang Nakhon Nayok, Nakhon Nayok 26000, Thailand +66 64-645-5091 Mon – Sun: 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM (ICT)