MIND MOVES:Resilience, that ability to bounce back, is something that can make us ever stronger, and able to deal with even greater problems wisely, writes Tony Bates
AS HUMAN beings, it's good to be reminded that we have within us the potential to survive, even when the odds are stacked against us. Stories of those who make it, despite injustice and hardship, are both reassuring and inspiring.
You have only to think of someone like Brian Keenan, who emerged from captivity with an amazing strength that has become a beacon for many people.
Maybe he was always like this. Or maybe it is truer to say that somehow his ordeal drew out of him new depths of understanding and compassion. His example suggests to each of us that we also may have reserves of resilience that only get called up for service when our backs are to the wall.
But what does resilience really mean? Where does it come from? And how can I be sure it will be available to me when I need it most?
Resilience is a word that's been around for thousands of years.
From the Latin "resilire", meaning, "to leap back'', it has been used in widely differing contexts, referring to the ability of carpet pile to recover original appearance and thickness after being subjected to compressive forces, to the ability of an ecosystem to recover after a profound disturbance.
In behavioural science, it has come to mean the human capacity to not only "bounce back", but to face, overcome, and even be strengthened by experiences of adversity.
Epidemiologists adopted the term in the 1980s when they were tracking incidences of disease and pathology across the lifespan of disadvantaged children.
While these writers noted higher than average incidences of pathology among those who grew up in adverse circumstances (eg poverty, parental pathology), they also noticed a universal phenomenon - something that Michael Rutter in 1985 described as a "consistent and amazing finding": although a certain percentage of these high-risk children developed various problems, a greater percentage of these children became healthy, competent young adults.
Subsequent studies began to focus not so much on those individuals who became casualties of these adversities, but on those children and adolescents who had not succumbed.
Resilience is now a common word in the mental health lexicon, referring to the potential of human beings to overcome the odds, and find fulfillment in life despite the problems and pressures that we experience.
It is a concept that underpins the principle of "recovery" that is now the cornerstone of our mental health policies, like A Vision for Change.
The story of resilience research moved from identifying this positive potential in human beings, to trying to understand where it came from. It turns out that resilience is primarily nurtured in us through relationships with key people in our lives, and through learning experiences that build confidence in our ability to solve problems and make decisions.
Genes have their role, but to attribute resilience solely to heredity is to miss that vital role that other people play.
Resilience depends predominantly on our ability to be able to reach out to others, and to benefit from what they offer us.
Many resilient people have come from families that offered them little support.
But a consistent finding in the literature is that they are people who found some alternative source of love and support that fostered in them a strong conviction that they had something to give.
What is nurtured through relationships is tested at some point when we are called upon to stand alone, face down some challenge, and trust the decisions we make. Adversity itself is grist for the mill when it comes to developing and drawing out our resilience. We will never discover just how resilient we are or could potentially be, if we always stay within our comfort zone, if we keep things too safe.
The lesson from this literature is that you would do well to begin to identify and encourage resilience in your own life and in those you care about. You need to make resilience part of your self-image.
Acknowledge the many positive features of your personality that have got you to where you are today. Your refusal to give in, your sense of humour, your willingness to learn from others. Look at all you've been through, and consider the resilience it has required to keep going and not give up.
Think also about the people who have gotten you this far and their random words of kindness that burned their way into your heart and echoed there when you needed them most.
And when you're done, try speaking to the next person you meet as though the words you say to them may be something they will remember for the rest of their lives.
• Tony Bates is founding director of Headstrong - The National Centre for Youth Mental Health www.headstrong.ie