The topic of psychological trauma is explored in understanding ideas about critical life situations. Critical life situations are understood as difficult life situations that lead to a crisis and pose a real threat to the satisfaction of a person’s fundamental needs, placing him in the face of a problem from which it is impossible to escape and which cannot be resolved in the usual way. A critical situation is defined as a situation of “impossibility”. One of the types of critical situations is stress as the impossibility of realizing “vital” here-and-now attitudes. Attitude is the individual’s readiness to fulfill an activated need in a given situation. A person’s dissatisfaction with his activated needs can lead to stress. Any situation that is assessed as unacceptable, negative and at the same time cannot be avoided is defined as a state of mental tension. Stress is generally considered to be an extreme degree of mental tension, which is used to designate conditions that have a strong and negative impact on activity. In the process of activity, the need merges with emotional experiences. Emotions play a pronounced role in the emergence and progression of states of mental tension. Hence the name “psycho-emotional stress”. However, they are part of the stress impact, since by their nature they are multidirectional (positive and negative), and stress is always aimed at mobilizing the vital forces of the body. At the beginning of the development of stress, a person’s strength is spent rationally; frequent loads lead to an increase in stress resistance. But if the situation does not improve, a person’s resources are spent carelessly, stress leads to exhaustion of the body, and the person experiences many negative emotions. And then, if the task is not resolved, a breakdown or neurosis occurs. The person feels discouraged, hopeless and sees no way out of the current situation. Prolonged stress has medical and psychological consequences. Mental tension manifests itself in a violation of the stability of mental functions and a decrease in activity efficiency. A person may experience indifference, doom and depression. Increased stress leads to the formation of emotional burnout syndrome, which includes increased anxiety, decreased self-esteem, decreased level of adaptation and resistance to adverse factors. We can say that the person gave up and gave up. At the same time, the person becomes very vulnerable and reacts very sharply to insignificant, although negative events for him. All this constitutes the prerequisites for the further development of various diseases against the background of ongoing stress. Prevention and elimination of stress should begin with non-drug methods. These include: psychotherapy, relaxation, training, physical activity. Using these methods you can achieve effective positive results. All rights reserved. Reprinting an article or fragment is possible only with a link to this site and indicating the author. Irina Kustova, 2020. Sign up for a consultation: Viber, WhatsApp + 7 911 341 21 82 Instagram: Kustova9264.