Why is it that some people regain their footing easily when encountering one of life’s inevitable stumbling blocks, while others struggle when facing a challenging experience? Although there are many factors that play a role in successfully navigating through adversity, a key trait is resilience.
According to the American Psychological Association, resilience involves having mental, emotional and behavioral flexibility to adapt to difficult or challenging life experiences.
“Resilience is not a lack of distress,” explained Cindy Carter, Ph.D. a licensed clinical psychologist and director at Cognitive & Behavioral Health Center of Charleston. “Everyone will experience distress. Resilience is the ability to make adjustments in how you think about and respond to a challenge.”
No one really knows for sure how and why individuals respond as they do in tough situations.
“We know that there are genetic variables as well as social and environmental factors that allow certain people to respond to stress in more productive ways,” said Jeannine Monnier, Ph.D., a licensed clinical psychologist and co-director with Carter at Cognitive & Behavioral Health Center of Charleston.
One factor that appears to play a part for some people is childhood experiences. Erin Haire, JD, associate director at the SC Institute of Medicine and Public Health, agrees that there can be a strong connection between a person’s experience in childhood and their resilience later as an adult.
“Resilience has so much to do with early connections,” Haire said. “Research shows that we learn to be resilient by sensing resilience in others. For instance, kids see how Mom and Dad react to situations.” Feelings of support from those early bonds and community connections can carry through to adulthood.
According to Monnier, some of our understanding about resilience comes from researchers who study trauma.
“Even though those may be extreme situations, the studies help us to learn what keeps people from developing resilience,” she explained.
Other characteristics that seem to affect resilience can be as varied as a person’s sense of humor, their overall optimism and their ability to look at a situation in multiple ways.
The reason why one person appears more resilient than another may not be known, but there is growing awareness that a person’s ability to be resilient is not set in stone. According to the APA, the resources and skills associated with resilience can be cultivated and practiced.
One way to build resilience is to adopt protective factors that can act as “buffers” to potentially challenging events. Protective factors are wide-ranging and may include connecting to a community, embracing healthy thoughts, improving problem solving skills, and even a commitment to overall health – physical activity, nutrition, and adequate sleep.
Possibly the most important protective factor is having meaningful relationships with family, friends and the community.
Malinda Terry is the community outreach coordinator at National Alliance on Mental Illness Charleston Area, and every day she sees the importance of community support. “It really takes a village of people to support an individual,” she said. “People who love you when you are having highs and love you when you are having lows and all that happens in between.”
Terry is all too familiar with the negative impact of isolation with her work at NAMI Charleston. “When someone has a community to turn to, they can learn tools to help them navigate difficult situations which leads to being more resilient in the future,” she said.
For children, these protective factors can be developed over time through many different avenues. “Even though early years might be more critical than we originally thought, we can give children lots of support throughout their childhood,” Haire explained. “Wherever we can reach kids, we need to provide the help they need to learn skills, whether it’s through school, sports, recreation, church or home.”
Michelle Nienhius, Manager of Prevention & Intervention Services at the Department of Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Services, knows the importance of social support as a protective factor, especially for teens. Through DAODAS’ work with county agencies, she has seen firsthand how local youth organizations help their members build resilience skills.
“The youth coalitions focus on developing leadership skills and modeling positive behavior,” she said. “The older teens demonstrate effective ways to avoid peer pressure and to make good decisions.” These skills then help the teens build resilience because they have a plan to follow when faced with a potentially troubling situation.
Even though much of resilience research focuses on children, Monnier explained that resilience can be built at any age. “Just as some people may be more athletic naturally, we know that anyone can learn to play a sport,” she said. “Research supports the idea that these protective factors can be built up like a muscle. People can build up a belief in their own abilities.”
“Having a flexible thinking style is something anyone can work on,” she added. “For instance, reminding yourself, ‘This situation is not permanent,’ ‘I’m capable,’ or ‘I don’t have to feel responsible for this circumstance.’”
Nienhius is enthusiastic about how a better understanding of resilience may help us to weather some of the tough times we’ll face. “The study of resilience is a fairly young field, but our understanding of how it fits into our lives is growing.” she said. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to navigating tough times, but one key piece may not be what we face, but how we respond.
By Lisa Wack
