Steve Farzam, COO @ Shore Hotel, On Behavioral Emergencies

Many people suffer from strong emotions, especially with specific triggers. Unfortunately for some people, their strong emotions become out of control and can turn into a behavioral emergency. In the event of a behavioral emergency, time is of the essence. The situation at hand requires awareness, caution, and coordination. Here is everything you need to know about behavioral emergencies and what to do when you experience one.

What is a Behavioral Emergency?
A behavioral emergency occurs when a person’s behavior becomes unpredictable and guided by extreme emotions of anger or fear. What makes the situation an emergency is the ability of the inflicted to cause physical harm to themselves and those around them. Many times, the patient will scream, yell, kick, punch, throw things, and act in irrational ways.

Why People Experience Behavioral Emergencies
Certain people never go through behavioral emergencies while it seems that others experience them on a regular basis. Why is this? Well, these situations occur much more often with people who have a mental illness. Anxiety and trauma are the main contributors.

It’s important to understand that some people who behave this way have serious medical conditions and require medical attention. Convince your loved one to get the help that they need to prevent these instances from occurring in the future.

What to Do
If you encounter a behavioral emergency, it’s important to step up and help to prevent any harm. However, you need to do this in the best way possible. First, be as calm as possible. If you are chaotic, it will only exemplify the behavior of the person having the emergency. Talk quietly and be straightforward. A person experiencing this type of situation may have severe fears, so don’t make any quick motions that can be interpreted as confrontational. You’ll also want to make the environment as calm as possible, so remove any triggers and do your best to make the patient comfortable.

Safety First
Of course, you want to help your loved one during such a troubling time for them. However, you need to put your safety and the safety of the other people in the area above everything else. If the inflicted gets violent and continues to be violent, they need to be separated from all people and pets until they have relaxed from their episode. If they don’t seem to be calming down, it may be necessary to call the authorities.

This article was originally published at SteveFarzam.net