Dealing with Stressed-out People
Everyone has been in a situation where things are going great for you, but a friend, loved one, or coworker is under a great deal of stress. Depending on how these people in your life deal with stress, it can place a great deal of stress on you and other people around them. When people get extremely stressed, there are a few behavior patterns that people tend to assume, depending on their personality type and the problems at hand. The two stress-induced personality types that are probably the most well known can be called the extreme-anger and sky-is-falling types.
The extreme-anger type is characterized by lashing out at people around them for small things that normally would not be a problem, or turning talking points into shouting points. When dealing with the extreme-anger type, you have to remember that what they are freaking out about is not the problem, just an opportunity to vent. Instead of focusing on what your angry comrade seems to be upset about, you have to side-step that conversation and move on to the root problem that is bothering them. By helping the extreme-anger type open up about their problems, you get a better look at them as a person and have the opportunity to tell them how their problems appear to a person who is not enraged. Hopefully, you can help them to move on and deal with their problems directly instead of making life difficult for everyone else.
Another pattern many people fall into when they are stressed is the sky-is-falling mentality. This is in many ways the opposite of the extreme anger type. The sky-is-falling person knows what is bothering them and is usually willing to share the laundry list of current stress factors in their life. Instead of lashing out at people around them, they feel sorry for themselves, and loath the infinite number of things that are keeping them from enjoying life. Other than solving their problems, there is usually not much you can do for the sky-is-falling type. Trying to console them can be somewhat effective, depending on just how bleak they feel their situation is, but most likely their mood will not improve considerably until they have made decent progress on solving or eliminating their stress factors.
Keep in mind that we all exhibit tendencies of both stress-induced personality types at different times. Overall, the best thing you can do is realize when you are getting stressed and how you react. Whether you are more of an extreme-anger or sky-is-falling person, please remember that the only thing that is permanent is change, and we should be careful how we treat people close to us when we are stressed.
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