Saturday, December 21, 2013

Important Facts On 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.

Several factors have been shown to make it easy for people to develop this ability. Persons that have close relationships with families and friends find it easier than those who do not. Those who are always optimistic are also more likely to recover from events that could potentially cause depression. Other important factors include willingness to seek help, good communication skills and 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.

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.

The resiliency quotient helps the healthcare provider determine the amount of psychological stress that the affected individual is experiencing. The individual is advised depending on whether they score well, poorly or their results are on the borderline. Those that score well or just slightly below the 90th percentile require just a little bit of moral support. Those who score poorly will require treatment in most cases.

Contrary to common belief, stress is not just a psychological issue. It is a condition that affects a great diversity of systems in the body. When the musculoskeletal system is affected patients will often complain of frequent muscle and joint pains. For the parasympathetic system, the main complains are in the gut and the genitourinary system. Other systems that are frequently affected are the cognition system, the sympathetic system and the endocrine system.

Stress resilience requires that one plays an active role in overcoming difficulties. One needs to challenge themselves to look at this from a positive perspective regardless of how difficult the situation is. This has to be something that is done on a daily basis. The importance of family support in this process cannot be overemphasised.




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