Situational Depression

Are the psychosocial stressors of situational depression, also known as adjustment disorder, worse for highly sensitive people? They can be because the nervous system of the highly sensitive person has a hard time recovering from hurt and trauma.

Situational stress applies to short-term circumstances and could be anything. A bee sting, a car accident, an argument, a flat tire all could be considered examples of this type of stress. They are events that we would hope would not be recurring or long-term.

Situational stress can turn into depression if a negative atmosphere or environment persists over a long period of time.

When Stress Becomes Situational Depression

All long term challenging situations do not turn into an adjustment disorder.  When situational depression occurs, it is often because solutions to problems cannot be found, and an individual or group develops feelings of hopelessness. Hope is one of the most important feelings for humans, one that we generally need to sustain ourselves.

Situational depression is sometimes called an adjustment disorder. It refers to a circumstance to which a person must but cannot adjust to. The internal conflict is what creates depression. Because it is often applies to a temporary situation, this type of stress can be easier to handle than stress created by long-term factors like biological challenges, cultural differences, or a hopeless situation.

HSPs And Adjustment Disorder

For highly sensitive people, an adjustment disorder can be an added difficulty compounding other problems. If an HSP has a chronic illness and is in a long-term unaccommodating or unempathetic circumstance, that highly sensitive person can easily develop a depression.

Because the HSP trait is a new awareness, it may take time for the human institutional systems to recognize the specialized care that HSPs need. HSPs can improve their situation and minimize their chances of incurring a long-term depression by taking charge of their health. As challenging as it is to be an HSP, and to become healthy for anyone, at least HSPs can use their trait to create the benefit of great health for themselves.