The 7 Types of Personal Crisis

Personal crises are times of growth. They help us to wake up in some ways and calm and patience in others. Today we want to review the different origins they can have.

Throughout life, we all go through personal crises . Each person experiences them differently, being sensitive to their individual circumstances, the environment, and the tools they have to overcome them. However, no one escapes them.

If we go through different types of personal crises throughout life, it is because everything is in constant movement and change. Stability is  still a temporary state, between one crisis and another . This is not something negative, but quite the opposite: it is crises that allow us to move from one stage to another and not stagnate.

The word 'crisis' comes from the Greek krisis which means 'to decide', but also 'to separate'. Describe those situations in which a break occurs  that forces you to choose between different options. What are the main types of personal crisis? We will see it right away.

" In times of crisis, only imagination is more important than knowledge. " -Albert Einstein-

1. Evolutionary


Evolutionary crises are those that are related to changes  marked by age . The passage from one stage of life to another sometimes generates great changes that require us to rethink ideas, beliefs, feelings, etc.

There are more intense evolutionary crises, such as the one that occurs during adolescence or after the transition to old age. The decisions  that must be taken during this type of crisis have to do mainly with the social and professional role ; likewise, they involve an important biological transformation.

2. Accidental, one of a kind of personal crisis


Another type of personal crisis is accidental. It occurs when some fortuitous event arises that considerably changes some aspect of life . This element can be positive or negative, but in both cases it represents a remarkable transformation.

In accidental crises, decisions revolve around how to incorporate into life  this new experience that has occurred unexpectedly . Therefore, they involve a process of shock, instability and rearrangement.

3. Family


The family is only a stable and fully happy institution in cartoons and stories. In real life, it constitutes a restricted social circle that is present, even as an absence, throughout life. The way it marks us and how we live our state in it can generate various types of crises over time.

The familiar is one of those transversal axes. It covers all life stages, playing the role of setting or background for a large number of personal episodes. In general, decisions related to proximity, distance, values, emotions, and interrelationships are derived from this type of crisis .

4. Health


Most of us go through one or more health crises throughout our lives. For some it becomes a long-term experience, due to the severity of the disease or the severity of the symptoms they experience.

A health problem leads to rethinking life in one or more aspects . As in the case of accidental crises, this type of situation implies decision-making aimed at incorporating the experience in such a way that it is approachable or assimilable for the person affected. It can also lead to work and social decisions.

5. Social


When speaking of social crisis at the individual level, what is referred to is those situations in which there is instability, recurrent or very intensive changes in relationships with the usual environment. For example, when someone becomes famous, they fall into disrepute.

This type of crisis also takes place when a calamity occurs that alters the normal development of a community or society. The usual thing is that decisions must be made focused on changing the daily way of relating to others ; sometimes they involve a change of environment.

6. Economic


This is one of the most common types of crisis, but also the most misunderstood. For whatever reason, many think that money or work matters should be approached exclusively in a pragmatic way and that the mental is a secondary issue. In reality, the opposite is true.

Economic crises often cause a great mental impact and, in fact, are often caused by irrational or compulsive behaviors. Therefore, rather than solving the problem of money or work itself, these types of situations require making decisions in terms of behaviors in this regard.

7. Loving


The sphere of the couple is one of those that generates the most crisis, because this type of relationship demands a whole set of mutual adaptations and contradictions that must be resolved. As compatible as the two people involved are, there will surely be moments of crisis during their relationship.

There are many decisions to be made in this area, but the one that always gravitates in this type of relationship is to continue or end . Also, of course, you go through the option of formalizing the relationship or not, having children or not, etc.

All types of crises are a manifestation that change is necessary, or that it is relevant to adapt to it. All of them also involve learning and generate some kind of instability . Still, deep down they are the engines that move life forward.