Some Basics Of Stress Resilience

By Eugenia Dickerson


Stress resilience is a term that describes the capability of a person to cope with tension or anxiety. This attribute is very important as it helps people to resume with their normal lives after experiencing some form of demoralizing event in their lives. Rather than sinking into hopelessness, some people have been reported to have improved functionality a feature commonly termed post-traumatic growth. Resilience is a process and not the trait of individual persons.

It is normal for people to react negatively when they are faced with difficulties in life. Events such as trauma, adversity and threats frequently cause negative behaviours and attitudes among the affected. Through resilience, one can overcome these negative thoughts and adopt more constructive positive attitudes. Offering psychological treatment to these persons in the form of cognitive behaviour therapy is greatly helpful. The significance of social support cannot be overlooked.

There are a number of factors that have been identified as enhancing this attribute. Close relationships with your families and friends is one of them. This coupled to the ability to easily share experiences makes it much easier to cope with difficulties. Other factors include ability to seek help and resources, good communication skills and presence of a winning mentality.

Religion has been shown as one of the most important factors involved in developing a positive self-esteem in persons that are faced with challenging situations. It has been demonstrated through research that young persons that join the church improve their academic performance. The improvement appears to be related to the attendance of church and interaction with believers and not the doctrine. The church has traditionally exerted great influence on social, physical and emotional health.

The objective measure of resilience is known as the resiliency quotient or SRQ. This takes into account a number of things that reflect all the aspects of life. The areas that are highlighted include type of diet and regularity of eating. Quality of sleep is assessed based on the number of hours spent asleep and the sleeping environment. Other areas that have to be looked at include social relations and nature of social support, physical exercise and income among others.

After the resiliency quotient has been determined, the affected person can be advised appropriately. Typically, the quotient is given a numerical value that is in turn allocated a percentile with respect to the general population. Persons that score highly are regarded as being normal while those that are given low scores require some form of assistance. Both medical and psychological support may be required for the serious cases.

There are many systems that are affected by stress. The systems that are commonly affected include the musculoskeletal system where joint and muscle pains are commonly experienced, the parasympathetic system and the sympathetic system. Other systems include cognitive system where there may be abnormalities in memory, decision making, judgement and learning, the immune system and the emotional system. Treatment is therefore geared at resolving all these problems.

Stress resilience needs that one takes up an active role in the recovery process. The process may take days, weeks or months depending on your personal commitment. Challenging yourself to always maintain a high self-esteem is a very important step. The role of the family in the recovery process is invaluable.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment