Adjustment disorder is a psychological condition that arises during a period of adaptation to a difficult life situation, following a stressful event or cultural shock. When a person changes their job, home, or school, leaves their parents, or returns to their homeland after a long stay abroad, they are exposed to greater stress. The likelihood of finding themselves in the "land of Adjustment Disorder" becomes very real.

How Does Adjustment Disorder Manifest?

The anxieties arising from uncertainty about the future can materialise physically — for example through headaches, stomach pain, nausea, chest tightening, or skin reactions — as a way for the body to "store" and "displace" psychic pain (Klein, 1946).

Stress and anxiety have their physical manifestations:

"The emotions that the individual cannot contain and make sense of are 'placed' onto the body, and sometimes onto the objects and people around them."

(Bronstein, 2010)

Beyond bodily signals, a person who has entered the land of Adjustment Disorder may:

• feel sadness, despair, and a sense of failure;
• become increasingly tense and anxious;
• experience sleep disturbances;
• have difficulty concentrating;
• display aggression;
• be absent more frequently from school or work;
• ignore tasks and responsibilities;
• misuse alcohol or psychoactive substances.

How Does Psychotherapy Help?

The therapist plays the role of an emotional guide, helping the individual to:

• understand and name their emotions;
• connect bodily reactions to their inner world;
• express feelings in a safe and healthy way;
• restore a sense of control and the capacity for adaptation.

The hidden meaning of symptoms is revealed when we find the appropriate psychic space for them. Then the body stops "speaking for us" and begins to serve our ability to live fully.

— The Global Psychotherapist

References

1. American Psychiatric Association. (2013). DSM-5. Washington.
2. Catalina Bronstein. (2010). On psychosomatics. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 91(5), 1077–1095.
3. Melanie Klein. (1946). Notes on some schizoid mechanisms. International Journal of Psycho-Analysis, 27, 99–110.
4. Thomas Ogden. (1989). The primitive edge of experience. Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson.
5. Peseschkian, N. (2003). Psychosomatics and Positive Psychotherapy – Volume 2. Varna: Slavena.