October 27th,2023
EDCO 790
Discussion Thread 1- Stress, Crisis, Trauma
Define the terms stress, crisis, trauma, and traumatic stress and
discuss the relationship among these concepts, which are central to the
traumatology field. Provide your perspective, but be sure to support all
assertions with specific references to all course texts and additional required
sources.
The terms stress, trauma, crisis, and traumatic stress are closely
interconnected and often used interchangeably, but they carry distinct
meanings that are important to understand. While these terms share a
common thread of emotional and psychological distress, they differ in their
causes, durations, and impacts on individuals.
Stress. The World Health Organization (WHO, 2023) defines trauma as:
A state of worry or mental tension caused by a difficult situation. Stress
is a natural human response that prompts us to address challenges
and threats in our lives. Everyone experiences stress to some degree.
The way we respond to stress, however, makes a big difference to our
overall well-being.
Trauma. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th
edition (DSM-5, American Psychiatric Association, 2013) defines trauma as:
Exposure to actual or threatened death, serious injury, or sexual
violence in one (or more) of the following ways: (1) Directly
experiencing the traumatic event(s); (2) witnessing, in person, the
event(s) as it occurred to others; (3) learning that the traumatic
event(s) occurred to a close family member or close friend – in cases of
actual or threatened death of a family member or friend, the event(s)
must have been violent or accidental; (4) experiencing repeated or
extreme exposure to aversive details of the traumatic event(s).
Traumatic Stress. The International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies
(ISTSS,2020) defines traumatic stress as:
Traumatic events involve either 1) actual or possible death or serious
injury or 2) sexual violence. Most adults have lived through at least one
traumatic event and many have experienced more than one event.
Trauma can also be chronic, meaning that similar events happen many
times over a long period of time.
Crisis. The National Interagency Fire Center defines trauma (2014) as:
A state of feeling an internal experience of confusion and anxiety to
the degree that formerly successful coping mechanisms fail us and
ineffective decisions and behaviors take their place. As a result, the
person in crisis may feel confused, vulnerable, anxious, afraid, angry,
guilty, hopeless, and helpless. Perceptions often are altered and
memory may be distorted
Personal Experience. As a therapist working in a foster care agency, these
terms are frequently used and oftentimes used interchangeably (which is not
uncommon as research has proven). Prior to training, I would use the terms
stress, trauma, crisis, and traumatic stress to describe an individual, family,
or community’s circumstances- which I now know was incorrect.
Summary. The terms stress, trauma, crisis, and traumatic stress are all
interconnected and have been at times used interchangeably. As
practitioners or researchers, we must understand that these terms should
not be used to describe an event or circumstance but rather to describe an
individual’s perception of the event or circumstance (Dulmus & Hilarski,
2014).
References:
American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual
of mental disorders (5th ed.).
Dulmus, C. N., & Hilarski, C. (2003). When stress constitutes trauma and
trauma constitutes crisis: The stress‐trauma‐crisis continuum. Brief
Treatment and Crisis Intervention, 3(1), 27–36. https://doi.org/10.1093/brief-
treatment/mhg008
National Interagency Fire Center. (2014, July 7). What is a crisis
https://www.nifc.gov/sites/default/files/document-
media/CrisisIntervention.pdf
