User:Haley Lockhart/sandbox

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Feeling lost can be caused by numerous physical and psychological factors and can impact aspects of daily functioning occasionally resulting in drastic actions or changes in mental state. The term ‘lost’ can be used to describe numerous psychological experiences like extreme boredom, feeling detached from reality, dissociation, confusion, stress, and depressive moods or behaviours. Experiencing a state of being lost can likely be a result of big life transitions and changes (either wanted or unwanted) causing an individual to have some sort of life crisis or even dissociative tendencies.

Big life transitions for most people are a large source of stress that can impact functioning. Things that cause stress in daily life are called stressors and when these are large, or build up over time it can cause an individual to feel like they are ‘lost’ in their own life, or need to make an altering decision.

Most stressful life events for adults include:

1. Death of spouse
2. Divorce
3. Marital separations
4. Jail term
5. Death of close family member
6. Personal injury or illness
7. Marriage
8. Fired at work
9. Marital reconciliation
10. Retirement
11. Change in health of family member
12. Pregnancy^[1]

Most stressful life events for students/adolescence include:

1. Death of a family member or close friend
2. Having a lot of tests
3. Going through finals week
4. Applying to graduate school
5. Victim of a crime
6. Multiple assignments due on the same day
7. Breaking up with a significant other
8. Finding out significant other is cheating
9. Having a lot of deadlines to meet
10. Property stolen
11. Having a hard upcoming week
12. Going into a test unprepared

A mid-life crisis is the term given to an adult in their mid-life who may “perceive their future as being limited” or that their best days are behind them. An individual experiencing this kind of crisi can be characterized by many different actions:

• Having an affair
• Getting a divorce
• Buying a sports car
• Have children who are just about to, or have already left home
• Making a large career change
• Going back to school

Middle aged individuals are "considered to be at least 40 years old" and may believe that they have "a limited time until death." Although this may not be true it leaves individuals in their middle age feeling a lack of success or accomplishment and they are unsure where they should go next.^[2]

Similarly to a mid-life crisis individuals may experience a loss of identity earlier in life, which is categorized as a quarter-life crisis. This phenomenon is also known as emerging adulthood.^[3] Emerging adulthood is experienced by many young adults during the transition from childhood/adolescence to adulthood. Having too many options in young adulthood can leave individuals with a feeling of loss of identity as they are unsure of where to go with their future. Emerging adulthood is largely experienced by those in Western Societies; this is due to the adult pressures put on emerging adults that are put forth by the rest of society. Feeling like you have not met all the ‘criteria’ of being an adult can leave one feeling lost. Variables that are considered when determining the feeling of reaching adulthood:

• Taking responsibility for one’s own actions
• Deciding on one’s beliefs and values
• Establishing a relationship with parents as an equal adult
• Financial independence

Dissociating from reality or having dissociative tendencies can be a way to cope with stressful life events pertaining to one’s own life. In general, dissociating can be a way for an individual to be lost in their own mind in order to cope with the stressful world around them.^[4]

In extreme cases dissociating can turn into Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), formerly known as Multiple Personality Disorder. DID is characterized by disturbances in memory and identity such as memory disruption and/or memory amnesia. Individuals may lose a sense of who they are and portray other distinct personalities. DID is rare and a very extreme reaction to extreme stress and trauma.^[5][6]