A difficult life situation is a condition that is currently significant for an individual, causing negative emotions and depressing states. Difficult conditions are always subjective in nature, which is expressed by the individual severity of the experience. This is always a dangerous situation. It requires the individual to adapt to new conditions. Otherwise, this may result in personal, behavioral, mental disorders and disorders.
What is a difficult life situation?
Modern Russian legislation defines the term “difficult life situation” as “a situation that objectively disrupts the life of a citizen (disability, inability to self-care due to old age, illness, orphanhood, neglect, poverty, unemployment, lack of a specific place of residence, conflicts and abuse in family, loneliness and the like), which he cannot overcome on his own.”
The term “life situation” began to be used in psychology from the beginning of the 20th century. A life situation is the conditions, circumstances, needs, values and ideas defined in relation to a particular person, which together influence the behavior and worldview of a person at this particular stage of his life.
A difficult life situation is defined as the following conditions:
- not satisfying the needs of the individual;
- contrary to his beliefs;
- creating negative experiences.
A difficult situation can be the death of a significant person, dismissal, loss of financial or social status, illness, poverty, violence and abuse, unplanned pregnancy, divorce and other personally significant events.
Difficult conditions can arise under the influence of both external and internal factors. The point is that a person cannot solve a problem in the usual ways. A difficult life situation is characterized by:
- tension;
- a requirement for a person to solve some problem;
- the need to change habitual behavior and life activities.
Subjectively, this is realized through a state of stress, the inability to meet new requirements, and uncertainty of prospects. A difficult life situation is different from a crisis or extreme situation, which are more traumatic for the psyche.
As a rule, a difficult life situation causes a conflict between the interests of the individual or the interests of him and society. A person has to choose new ways to achieve a goal. This is a critical and, to a certain extent, turning point situation, which is characterized by human social instability.
Types of problematic (difficult) situations
There are quite a lot of causes and types of TJS. Doctor of Psychology, specialist in conflict management, A.Ya. Antsupov, proposes a division of problematic life moments in the following areas:
- related to human activity: professional or domestic, emergency or extreme situations;
- based on interpersonal relationships: relationship problems, pre-conflict moments, conflict incidents;
- arising as a result of intrapersonal problems: conflicts, difficulties, crises;
- caused by everyday (everyday) situations: danger, uncertainty, loss.
Conflict of interest - what kind of situation is it?
Experts emphasize that TLC can be characterized by the presence of a difficult situation, an imbalance between opportunities and requirements for activity, as well as the activity of personal motives.
There is a less complex division of THS into two types: first and second.
The first type is social HOAs
This includes troubles that arise in the course of life associated with everyday moments. The first type includes difficulties of a temporary nature and with the prospect of restoring the usual way of life.
By the way! The occurrence of such moments in life is influenced only by the individual himself. Personally, he creates them through his actions, experiences them himself and receives negative experiences.
The second type is extreme
The result of such life moments is considered to be a state of “mental breakdown” or “physical survival.” This type includes severe loss in the course of life.
For your information! The second type includes extreme natural, anthropogenic and man-made situations, as well as their complex consequences that manifest themselves over time.
Emergency situations caused by natural disasters accompany humanity at all stages of existence. These are forces beyond control, but people, trying to master them, on the contrary, can not eliminate, but provoke the emergence of new excesses.
Technogenic (technical) and anthropogenic (ecological) crises are the result of the action or inaction of humanity in the process of promoting technological progress and life on the planet.
An example of this is the pollution of the environment and natural lands with industrial waste: mechanical or chemical (emissions into the atmosphere, discharge into rivers and seas, and other actions).
Finding yourself in difficult situations, a person begins to experience mental tension, which prevents him from adequately assessing the situation and independently finding a way out.
Types of mental tension in TJS
Help in difficult life situations
The goal of working in a difficult life situation is to adapt to new conditions and stabilize the situation. As a result, a person either takes an active life position (favorable adaptation) or becomes an opportunist (maladaptation).
There are possible useful (constructive) and unhelpful (destructive) ways of adapting to the situation. Structural ones include:
- maximum use of your potential and resources, the help of a personally significant circle of friends;
- targeted use of these resources and accumulation of social experience;
- re-evaluating the situation, searching for alternatives and viewing it as a set of possibilities rather than limitations.
The following strategies are destructive:
- avoidance, that is, ignoring the situation, trying not to notice the discomfort;
- choosing a strategy without understanding its consequences;
- searching for a solution without sufficient understanding of the situation (there is little information or it is from low-quality sources);
- using other people's resources without searching for your own, and especially without using them.
Overcoming a difficult situation
These are the active actions of a person to change the situation. For example, if a person is left without a job, then he uses his communication skills, connections, takes courses, changes the situation in any way, trying to get rid of unemployment. A person seeks information, thinks, involves other people, controls his emotional and mental reactions. But such a strategy is not possible in the event of the loss of a loved one. Then all that remains is to cope with the situation.
Coping with a difficult situation
It is used if it is obvious to the individual that not all problems can be solved. Activities in this case are aimed at:
- to maintain self-control, mental health, stability;
- minimizing harm and stress.
This strategy is relevant in cases where it is impossible to change the situation and you have to change your attitude towards it.
Coping is a person's conscious actions to achieve a goal. In no case should it be confused with a passive attitude and subconscious psychological defense mechanisms.
Passive adaptation
This is a variant of coping, but it is aimed at changing not the situation, but the person’s personality. This style of behavior can be either primary or auxiliary.
- You can adapt to a situation by taking on someone else's role and conforming to it. This is relevant when the causes of a difficult situation are one’s own undesirable character traits, for example, uncertainty. Yes, this is imitation, but it allows you not to underestimate your own self-esteem and gradually gain confidence.
- Determining the limits of your capabilities is another adaptation option. This is especially true in situations of illness or disability. It is important to analyze what the body is ready for, what it is capable of doing, what it can compensate for, and what it has irretrievably lost.
- Anticipating a situation (playing out a frightening outcome) is another way of adaptation. It helps you play out a difficult situation in advance and choose ways to cope with it.
Experience
We cannot cope with some situations even if we want to, for example, in the case of illness, old age, or being bullied by a group of people. Then you just have to go through difficult moments, changing yourself and your vision of the world.
These are always situations that break a person, which in no way can satisfy the needs of the individual or correspond to his values. As a rule, these are irreversible conditions that violate the harmony of the individual. Situations in which a person cannot change circumstances are the most difficult. After overcoming them, it will definitely not be possible to live as before.
They are overcome not through actions and practices, but through the internal emotional restoration of the functional balance of life.
- These are changes in a person’s inner world.
- This is sewing up the “holes” of the soul, searching for ways of personal development in the current conditions, creating new semantic connections between consciousness and life, creating a new image of oneself and the world.
- You can see it as a test, a test of endurance. A person agrees with himself that after going through all this, he will be able to achieve the most unrealistic peaks.
The process of experiencing begins with the inclusion of defense mechanisms (repression, avoidance). Then the denial of what happened begins. Afterwards, a person goes through the remaining stages and reaches the final stage - acceptance (recognition and understanding of the situation).
Positive attitude
Whatever the strategy, it doesn’t hurt to develop a positive attitude towards the situation. How is this possible, and what does this mean? There are two methods:
- compare your situation with other people (“I’m not as bad as…”);
- remember your previous successes (“yes, now I am, but then...”).
This will not solve the situation, it is partly a passive method, but it will give you confidence and free up your thoughts to find new solutions or allow you to accept a situation that cannot be changed.
It is important to teach a person to cope with difficult life situations, and not to provide a way out of specific conditions. No person is immune from repeated problem situations, therefore you need to have a developed adaptation system (adaptive competence).
