Prepare for the Certified Addiction Counselor (CAC) exam with our comprehensive practice resources, including quizzes, flashcards, and multiple-choice questions designed to enhance your knowledge and confidence for the test.

Each practice test/flash card set has 50 randomly selected questions from a bank of over 500. You'll get a new set of questions each time!

Practice this question and more.


What type of stressor includes feelings like depression or suicidal thoughts?

  1. Transitional states

  2. External factors

  3. Internal distress

  4. Social environments

The correct answer is: Internal distress

The correct choice focuses on the concept of internal distress, which encompasses psychological and emotional states that arise from within an individual. This type of stressor directly affects a person's mental health and well-being, manifesting in feelings such as depression and suicidal thoughts. Internal distress is often tied to one's personal experiences, emotions, thought patterns, and can be influenced by various factors, including life events, trauma, or underlying mental health issues. In contrast, transitional states, external factors, and social environments represent different domains that may influence a person's overall stress but do not specifically address the internal emotional landscape. Transitional states might refer to changes in life circumstances, external factors could include environmental pressures or events outside the individual’s control, and social environments pertain to the interactions with and conditions of the surrounding community or relationships. While these can certainly impact someone's mental state, they do not inherently encompass the internal emotional struggles that define internal distress.