When Crises Strike, Look to Fulton County Family Services for Help

Stress is a normal part of everyday life. If people are lucky, they learn coping mechanisms that help them deal with the day-to-day stressors, and they become no more than lessons people need to learn in order to live life.

But sometimes those stressors pile up and come at people one after the other to the point that they can be overwhelming. This is when stress can become chronic and it can affect the body and interpersonal relationships, especially those within families.

Chronic stress can lead to crises requiring the assistance of Fulton County Family Services

Stress comes about because of a rush of adrenaline that results in a fight or flight response. When this fight or flight response remains triggered over time, chronic stress sets in that can cause a host of problems. The symptoms of chronic stress include:

• Irritability when even small things that would not ordinarily bother someone cause frustration and irritableness.

• Anxiousness, a feeling of ‘waiting for the other shoe to drop’, fear of whatever stressor is next.

• Depression, a feeling of overwhelming sadness, sometimes with suicidal ideation.

• Insomnia that tends to worsen all of the other problems.

• Overeating or abuse of drugs or alcohol.

• Social withdrawal.

There are many things that can interfere with the harmonious functioning of a family.

Family crises can come be precipitated by host of happenings and situations, many of which people are not trained to handle:

• Death of a parent or child

• Loss of employment by one or both parents

• Children who do not have healthy coping skills and act out in inappropriate ways

• Incarceration of a parent or of a child

• Divorce

• Physical, social, sexual, or emotional abuse

• A parent or child who is depressed or suicidal

• Poor management of resources

• Rigidity in rules and regulations

• Lack of structure

• Lack of rules and regulations for family behavior

• Natural disasters

• Alcoholism of a parent

• Infidelity of a parent

• Severe illness of a child or parent

• Problems with in-laws.

A crisis is a critical juncture in a family that requires external intervention to grow beyond. It upsets the normal functioning of the family. A crisis requires a new set of responses. It is important to understand that not everyone has the training to deal with every crisis that arises.

Fulton County family services offers crisis intervention. Crisis intervention for families is uses intervention techniques with one or more family members, beginning with the person initially seeking help for the family.

Services counselors deal with identifying the family’s problem(s), they teach effective problem resolution skills, and they offer a safe place for family members to learn to interact with each other in a positive way. When more intensive work is needed, they refer family members for therapeutic counselling.

They also focus on helping the family adapt to the changes that created the crisis, and they assist with identifying community resources that can offer assistance.