Psychological distress is a state of the emotional suffering of a human being that is related to the demands that are difficult to fulfill in real life.
Psychological distress needs extra care and attention as it leads to frustation and suffering in human life.
These are the unpleasant feelings that you feel when you are overwhelmed. For helping someone cope up with it, first, you need to know about the signs of psychological distress.
Here are subtle body language clues that indicate psychological distress.
1. Freeze response
Very often than not people tend to freeze in certain triggering situations. People continue to freeze in the middle of some ongoing situation that isn’t right or threatening. Similarly, if someone is notified of a devastating news or a crime, they respond in the same freezing manner. This is one of the signs that tells someone is in deep psychological distress.
2. Repetitive behaviors
Repetitive behaviors help people in dealing with stress. From foot bouncing to swinging back and forth helps deal with our stress in different situations. When something terrible happens or a piece of bad news has been received, not only adults but also children show signs of back and forth motion. This captures the delicacy of the situation and helps them deal with stress.
3. Fetal position
According to the research, it suggests that a piece of overwhelming news registers on the same brain area as someone has been physically kicked. Therefore, even while listening to disastrous news tends to kick in at our stomachs with fear. People often feel themselves in a fetal and weak position after listening to bad news.
4. Interlaced fingers
This is a behavior that is usually seen when a person is upset or distraught. The behavior is performed subconsciously by people by interlacing their stiffened fingers. The stiffened fingers indicate conscious awareness and increased tactile stimulation. This interlaced finger behavior has often been seen in people while addressing sensitive news or dealing with certain traumas.
5. Sucked in lips
We have very often seen this behavior with people in terms of facing some disappointment in a situation or facing a huge crowd for a public apology. This lips sucked-in behavior is a sign of great distress. It communicates to people naturally about one’s helplessness and psychological distress in life. With time, we adapt to this behavior and start understanding what it actually means.
