Wednesday, December 18, 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.

There are several factors that are said to be very vital in the development of this great attribute. Proper social support structures in the form of family and friends make it easy to cope with difficulties and encourage early recovery. Persons that are willing to share their problems and those who possess good communication skills also tend to recover faster.

Religion has been established to important factor in dealing with life challenges and raising the self-esteem of affected persons. Research shows that youths that join the church tend to have an improvement in their academic performance. This improvement is attributable to the mere attendance of church and the interaction with the religious community rather than doctrine. The church is believed to have a great influence on emotional, social and physical 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.

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.

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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