We’ve all heard the phrase, “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” The ability to stay strong, bounce back, and keep your head up high is the act of being resilient. Resilience is necessary to keep going throughout life, and people learn and adopt new ways of being resilient through adversity. There were several articles that helped me understand resilience in adversity through mental health.
There are a few great ways to be resilient in adversity. The first is to still find the enjoyment in life. This is finding the “silver lining” and staying positive, which in turn makes you a stronger person. Mental health is a serious issue. People can suffer from negative thinking, harmful self thoughts, and low self worth. Staying positive can really help people going through a depression stay resilient.
I was interested to find out that another key part of resilience is to reach out to others. Resilience doesn’t mean fighting adversity alone. The support system from others can really help someone get through their battle with mental illness. Dr. Lynn Fredli did research on this topic. She said asking others for support is a must to stay resilient. She states, “No one survives without the community and no community thrives without the individual.” Michael P. Dentato has studied resilience and minorities. He says people “often draw upon personal and community-level coping mechanisms and resources to develop resilience.”
I understand resilience and mental health myself. My father really helps me with my mental problems, and together, we tend to get through it. I’m not afraid to reach out.
Walter O. Bockting and his colleagues set out to find resilience through mental health and transgender issues. They speculated there would be a lot of adversity in transgender daily life. They found issues within the transgender community mimic the minority stress model. The model says the relationship between minorities and dominant values result in conflict for the members of the minority community.
Stevan E. Hoball talks about resilience through the conservation of resources theory. People obtain resources to live in everyday life. These resources might be physiological, as in food and water, mental, as in self worth, spiritual, and interpersonal. When one of these resources isn’t satisfied, stress is created for the individual. Hoball says resilience is the key to keep going until that resource is replenished.
Emotional intelligence is also a key to being resilient. Knowing your emotions and how to react to each one is a tough act, but can really help one stay strong and resilient in their life. Resilience is the key to stay strong through adversity. There are many scholars who have studied this extraordinary coping mechanism. To be resilient is to be strong, even in adversity.