What does being in a "crisis" look like for you?

I'm curious as to everyone's own definition of "crisis" is and what it looks like for you.

Anything that involves suicidal thoughts is a crisis for me. I don't necessarily cry or emote in other ways. I usually still go to work and act like a normal person. But the visuals are constantly in my head, preventing me from thinking straight.

Suicide is pretty much the only sign I have that tells me I'm depressed. I don't have the physical symptoms for some reason, except for appetite changes. And my emotions are normally quite flat, so they are kind of useless as an indicator. But as soon as my thoughts become violent and destructive, I know I need to call someone.

My T pretty much says its when I'm in any irrational or unstable state and can't get myself grounded. I'll usually text him something off the wall and he'll ask me if I can get myself stable...and if not we go from there. We either text more, then go to a phone call and if he can't get me calmed down from there and I can't promise to be safe I HAVE to go to ER. Being in crisis for me means being at risk for harming myself. What does that mean? Self injury, self medicating, stoping my meds (I'm bipolar), sui thoughts.

Oh on a side note I spent an entire session arguing with him about how stoping my meds was NOT a crisis situation, and was so adamant it was it wasn't even funny. I still don't get it, but I figured I'd put it.

for me its being unable to cope...at all.....in anything...being totally overwhelmed and in a constant state of panic, feeling like I am going to just fall apart in front of anyone.....Unable to keep it together.....dangerous to self and maybe someone else....not suicidal for me, or wanting to kill someone, but totally loosing it...being impulsive, reckless, danger to self not obvious like driving too fast, hanging with the wrong people, getting into dangerous situations that could harm me.....etc.
Also I can have rage or tear or both.

Trigger for SI....







Putting out lit matches on my skin. Not being able to eat at all. Having constant thoughts of suicide with a plan. I recently went through this and was hospitalized for a week. I'm feeling much better now. Oh and i usually, stupidly, stop taking my medications.

being out of control and having access to razor blades. crying so hard i have a panic attack. waking from nightmares dissociated and needing to cut.

I don't think I have ever had anything bad enough happen to me to be considered a crisis. If I have come close to crisis it has always been my own fault, and so then I just have to go do what needs to be done.
Interesting question.

This is exactly what I am I like too

When i was in crisis I was terrified to leave the house. I was terrified to stay home. I cried pretty much constantly. I didn't go to work & wasn't very functional. I spent weeks feeling like I wasn't a real person.

Feeling ungrounded, like I'm on the bottom part of a roller coaster. I am more aware now of when this is happening now (this past month), but when I was unable to define this was when I would panic/call my therapist/exhibit behaviors such as rage, anger, and clinginess due to the fear this feeling causes. Unfortunately, these behaviors push people away when I need them the most. I now can use a certain visualization that helps but it still feels in the traumatic range, like my core self is in danger.
A crisis usually also includes paranoia, specifically the inability to trust the people around me because I'm in a varied state where my perceptions lack the accuracy needed to help me feel safe. I usually project my emotions onto others because they are so intense, that it is impossible at the time not to do so. If people around me talk about anything or anyone and it correlates around 1% or higher to something that I am hyperconscious about, I wonder obsessively if they were trying to tell me something that I was doing/saying wrong indirectly.
Mood variations are omnipresent. I go from anger/rage at others, then I feel the anger/rage towards myself and obsessively review what I might have said/done to cause the crisis and usually can come up with an infinite amount, and then I go through feeling empathy for others involved in my crisis. In between, there are times that I feel like I can't go on, that I physically and mentally am not going to make it through anything. Hopelessness, feeling like I am alone and no one cares is also a major component especially because my behaviors during this time push other way sometimes temporarily, sometimes permanently. Helplessness ensues as the realization that I am in a chaotic state and feel in danger and that I've totally made an idiot out of myself, can't change it, but know that nor can I totally prevent a future crisis. So, shame has built up over time because I have the intellect to realize that I am going crazy but am so reactive to my own emotions and I keep repeating this. Thus, self-hatred/self-destructive feelings/actions remain to be a popular option because I can't stomach accepting myself for who I am, and can't be who I want to be.