Sunday, December 15, 2013

Some Basics Of Stress Resilience

By Eugenia Dickerson


Stress resilience describes the ability of people to cope with various levels of tension or anxiety. This is very important for persons that have experienced or are experiencing some form of difficulties in their lives. A number of persons have been seen to experience improved level of functioning following challenging events in their lives. This paradoxical occurrence is also known as post-traumatic growth. It is important to regard this attribute as a process rather than a trait.

Through this process, people exhibit positive adaptations in behaviour. Naturally, most human beings react negatively to adversity, trauma or threats. Through various psychological therapies such as positive reinforcement negative reactions can be gradually reduced and better behaviours adopted. Affected individuals are usually encouraged to maintain a positive perception of things and to continually have a high self-esteem. For this to happen, proper social support structures must be in place.

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.

It has been shown that religion is very influential in helping people rise up after tragic events. Young people who engage themselves in church activities have a higher self-esteem and better academic performance. This improvement is attributable to attendance of church events and interaction of other members of the church community and not the doctrine per se. Traditionally, the church has been known to play a major role in emotional, physical and social health.

Resilience can be determined objectively using what is known as resiliency quotient, SRQ. This is a measure of different aspects of life and uses them to estimate the quality of life. The main areas that have to be assessed include dietary behaviours as regards type of food and eating patterns, quality and duration of sleep and availability of family and social structures. Other aspects that have to be highlighted include physical exercise and level of income.

Once the resiliency quotient has been determined, the affected person is advised accordingly. Results of the assessment are expressed in percentiles. Persons that have a score that falls above the 90th percentile are regarded as being psychological stable. Those that score slightly below this can be assisted through a little social and medical support to restore normalcy. Those that score very lowly almost always need comprehensive medical support.

Stressful situations affect diverse systems in the body and often lead to serious dysfunction. One of the areas that are commonly affected is the musculoskeletal system. In this system, the main symptoms that are experienced include muscle and joint pains. The effects on the parasympathetic system are manifested in the gut and the genitourinary system. Other areas that are affected include the sympathetic, emotional, cognitive, endocrine and the immune system.

Stress resilience is a process that requires one to be actively involved in their recovery. It may take a long period of time or a short one depending on how committed one is. The most important thing is to develop a culture where you will strive to improve yourself on a daily basis. It is important to always have the family by your side for this to work.




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