Defining A Mental Health Crisis

What Exactly Is A Mental Health Crisis And Who Has Them?

A crisis is broadly defined as an acute, time-limited event, experienced as being emotionally overwhelming in response to one’s perception of an event.

Crisis’ are experienced by people of all ages, cultures, and socioeconomic conditions and may or may not be related to a specific mental disorder. 

What is a crisis for one person may not be for another person, and what is now a crisis may not have been a crisis before or would not be a crisis in a different setting.

Crisis’ can be looked upon as something that happens when your personal coping system has become out of balance and that balance cannot be regained, even though you are trying very hard to correct the imbalance.

So does having a crisis in your life mean that you have a mental illness or will be given a mental health diagnosis?

The answer depends on how long the symptoms associated with the crisis last and if they cause the individual to lose their ability to function appropriately in their day to day life.

Remember, ANYONE can experience a crisis.  For some people the crisis may not last longer that a few hours or a day, while for others, the crisis might be longer term.  

At least in the State of Texas where I have my private practice, a diagnosis can only be made by individuals who are designated as qualified Licensed Professionals of the Healing Arts under the State of Texas Health Codes, and it simply allows other mental health professionals to use a common language and code to communicate effectively with each other. 

After all, if you went to your primary care doctor for a vision problem, and he then referred you to a vision specialist, you would want him to use a diagnosis that the vision specialist would understand quickly and not use something like, “kinda blind”! 

A diagnosis is just a set of words agreed upon by mental health professionals to best described what happened to a person in crisis. Often it is temporary and can be changed. 

A diagnosis DOES NOT mean that the person is being labeled as crazy, or psycho, or that all-time favorite – cookoo.  We mental health folks even have a book called a Diagnostic and Statistical Manual that guides us to make the correct diagnosis.  Cookoo isn’t in there…..I already checked!

A diagnosis also helps insurance companies to pay the correct amount of money for any mental health services that a person may receive if they decide to get additional help after the crisis has passed.

A mental illness is generally defined as a wide range of mental health conditions or disorders that affect your mood, thinking and behavior.

Examples of mental illnesses include chronic depressive and anxiety states, schizophrenia, eating disorders and addictive behaviors and that set of behavioral criteria must be met after observing an individual’s behavior, emotional state, and thought processes. 

These disorders of mood, thinking and behavior, in most cases, last for six months or more. A person may go into a crisis state when something happens to them which may overwhelm their ability to cope with a stressful event.

It is for this reason that there is now training in Critical Incident Training, (referred to as CIT) for Peace Officers, where they learn how to work with individuals who are experiencing a mental health crisis.