By Jennifer Fiorillo
Mental Health
Jennifer Fiorillo
The last two years have taught us many important lessons about the fragility of life and how we must never take things for granted. The COVID-19 pandemic took us by storm as we found ourselves very quickly and radically shifting our lives. Within weeks of the beginning of the pandemic, we were working and schooling from home, masking in public places, quarantining and hoping that it would all pass quickly. Instead, we lived a prolonged period of job loss, illness, death and financial insecurity.
What’s clear from all this chaos is that we have overcome the worst of it, and many have come out stronger and ready to handle even more challenging circumstances. Personal growth can be a byproduct of what is called resilience. The American Psychological Association defines resilience as “the process of adapting well in the face of adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats or significant sources of stress – such as family and relationship problems, serious health problems or workplace and financial stressors.”
Resilience is not typically something we intentionally work hard to achieve. Resilience usually happens out of necessity for us to work through difficult situations and events. One thing that we need to be careful about is thinking that we must fight our way through difficult situations – especially those of us who have experienced ongoing trauma. While the outcome of resilience may be considered positive, it should not be expected that everyone has the ability to pull themselves up by their bootstraps in the same way that others may be able to. Resilience cannot be addressed without accounting for social determinants such as socioeconomic status, systemic racism, mental and physical health.
Some research suggests that resilience is heritable. Dr. Pheobe Tucker’s article, “What is Resilience?” from July 2021 discusses the 33 percent to 52 percent of us who show this heritability that can be linked to various genetic variations and expressions contributing to what’s considered “emotional hardiness,” or an increase in the brain’s ability to adapt to stress.
Other factors and lifestyle practices that are associated with resilience include having sufficient social supports, practicing mindfulness and meditation and physical exercise. There is also the belief that with aging comes wisdom and the ability to share life experiences that helps to build resilience.
So how does someone measure or determine if they exhibit behaviors that are indicative of resilience? Seeing setbacks as opportunities for reflection and growth, having the resources and tools to manage stress, acknowledging that there are many things beyond our control and having a mindset of change and growth as opposed to one-way thinking are just a few examples of behaviors that are consistent with resilience. When faced with a stressful or traumatic event, it is important to recognize our response and work through emotions to help guide us with action that will help to get us over the hump and come out of it with a valuable lesson or learning opportunity that would not have been possible without adversity.
Jennifer Fiorillo, MBA, MPH is the president and CEO of Bridges Healthcare in Milford, and may be reached at Jfiorillo@bridgesmilford.org.