Emotional hazards and how to handle it?

Their idea, in essence, was that there are sound and unsound, adaptive and maladaptive, ways of meeting a range of emotional hazards during life, each of which may have important consequences for later psychological soundness and ability to cope. Their hope was to be able to step in when a patient, up against an emotional crisis, couldn't handle it properly. They hoped to help him to handle it, and in so doing not only keep him functioning effectively but also maintain his ability to meet other, later crises, perhaps less Significant ones, perhaps just as significant. 

The Korean War helped buttress the idea. During that conflict it was discovered that psychiatric first aid administered on the spot to battle-shocked soldiers often quickly restored them to duty. On the other hand, those sent home for long-drawn-out institutional treatment responded slowly.

To go into a little more detail, crisis intervention rests on the concept that as an individual meets problems in daily life he may become temporarily emotionally upset. The upsets, however, are managed by techniques he has learned in the past: by tolerance of tension, by hopeful expectation that the problem will be solved (based on past successes in solving problems), and by various methods he has learned to use to discharge tension.

Soon, he regains his previous equilibrium. When, however, the problem is a greater one and previous problem- solving methods are not suitable, then the person may move from what might be called an emotionally hazardous state into a crisis state. And the word "crisis" is used not as a synonym for emergency but rather for an acute, often prolonged disturbance in an individual as the result of an emotionally hazardous situation. 

The crisis period, in fact, can be divided into four phases. In the first, there is a rise of tension along with some disorganization of behavior as the impact of the hazardous situation is realized and the usual problem-meeting techniques are brought to bear. In the second phase, tension mounts as the problem remains unsolved. In the third phase, the tension reaches a point at which still more resources are mobilized.