How Life Events Can Impact Your Mental Health

You just got married, bought your first house, or landed your dream job. These are supposed to be some of the happiest moments of your life. So why do you feel so stressed, overwhelmed, and even a little depressed? It can be confusing and even guilt-inducing to feel bad during a time that is supposed to be good. The truth is that any major life event, whether it is positive or negative, is a significant stressor that can impact your mental health.

At Televero Health, we often help patients understand that stress is not just about bad things happening. Stress is about change. Any major change to your life and your routines requires your brain and body to adapt, and this process of adaptation uses up your mental and emotional resources, making you more vulnerable to developing or worsening a psychiatric condition.

Negative Life Events: The Obvious Stressors

It’s easy to understand how negative life events can take a toll on our mental health. Things like the death of a loved one, a divorce or breakup, losing a job, or receiving a serious medical diagnosis are profoundly difficult experiences. They can trigger a range of powerful emotions, including grief, anger, fear, and sadness.

These events can act as a direct trigger for a mental health condition. For someone who is already vulnerable, a major negative life event can be the stressor that pushes them into a full-blown episode of depression, anxiety, or PTSD. The sense of loss, instability, and uncertainty that these events create can overwhelm a person’s natural coping abilities.

Positive Life Events: The Hidden Stressors

What is often harder to recognize is that positive life events can also be major stressors. While they bring joy and excitement, they also bring massive change and new responsibilities. This is sometimes referred to as “eustress,” or positive stress.

Consider some of these happy events:

• Getting Married: This involves merging two lives, navigating family dynamics, and making major financial decisions.
• Having a Baby: While a joyous event, it also brings sleep deprivation, a complete loss of your old routine, and the immense responsibility of caring for a new life.
• Starting a New Job: This comes with the pressure to perform, the need to learn new skills, and the challenge of fitting into a new workplace culture.
• Moving to a New Home: This involves the logistical stress of packing and moving, as well as the emotional stress of leaving a familiar place and adapting to a new one.

Even though these are good things, they still demand a huge amount of your energy and resources. They disrupt your equilibrium. If you are already running low on mental reserves, the stress of a positive event can be enough to tip you into a state of anxiety or depression.

The Stress-Vulnerability Model

A helpful way to think about this is the “stress-vulnerability model” (also known as the diathesis-stress model). This model suggests that people have a certain level of predisposition or vulnerability to developing a mental illness. This vulnerability can be genetic, biological, or based on early life experiences.

A person can have a high level of vulnerability but never develop a condition if they don’t encounter significant life stress. On the other hand, a person with low vulnerability might be able to handle a great deal of stress without developing a problem. A major life event acts as the “stress” part of the equation. For a vulnerable individual, it can be the trigger that activates their underlying predisposition, leading to the onset of a psychiatric condition.

It is important to be compassionate with yourself during times of major life change. Recognizing that even good changes are stressful can help you to let go of the guilt you might feel for not being “happy enough.” It gives you permission to acknowledge your stress and to proactively seek support to help you navigate the transition, protecting your mental health in the process.

Key Takeaways

• Any major life event that causes significant change, whether it is positive or negative, is a major stressor that can impact your mental health.
• Positive events like getting married or starting a new job can be hidden stressors because they require a great deal of adaptation and energy.
• The “stress-vulnerability model” explains how a major life stressor can trigger an underlying predisposition to a psychiatric condition.
• It is important to be compassionate with yourself during times of change and to seek support to help you navigate the stress.

Ready to take the first step? We can help. Get started with Televero Health today.