Defining Resilience
Resilience is the ability to metaphorically “get up after falling down”. This “falling down” may be something that happens that is unexpected or expected in one’s life that for a moment, or much longer, makes the person unable to continue on with their life as usual. The opposite of resilience is vulnerability. This is when the person falls down and is unable to get back up. Vulnerability is a more likely outcome when the person has fallen down many times before or has fewer supports to help them get back up.
Resilience is not easy. It can be real work to get back up and dust oneself off and move forward again. In some instances, resilience is just surviving and making it through the ordeal. In other instances, the negative or unwelcome experience can be a catalyst for growth, greater understanding, and greater awareness for the person. In either instance, surviving or thriving from the experience, we say that person was resilient.
Some people are better than others at “getting back up”. These people when they experience life challenges have more supports to help them get back up again. We call these supports “protective factors”. These supports can be personal characteristics like optimism, self-esteem, stick-to-it-ness, and mental flexibility, to name a few. They can also be characteristics in our environment such as having caring family members, caring friends, caring partners, caring neighbors, caring teachers, caring co-workers, caring social workers or other mental health professionals in one’s life for support. The research has found that we are more likely to be resilient when we have more social support in our lives. Therefore, the old adage “it takes a village to raise a child” is not only true for that child, but true for all of us.
In contrast to protective factors, risk factors are the impediments that make it more difficult to get back up. They can be circumstances in one’s past such as having been abused, neglected, or witnessed domestic violence. Risk factors can also be unhealthy people in our lives, unhealthy situations, or unhealthy behaviors. Additional risks can be societal ills such as racism, sexism, and homophobia. As risks accumulate, they make it more and more difficult to get back up and more likely to become vulnerable. Therefore, to become more resilient we need to increase the protective factors and decrease the risk factors for each person.
We have learned from the research that there is not one protective factor that is important for all people to be resilient, nor is there one risk factor that is most dangerous to all people. Therefore, there is not one “magic bullet” for all people to make them more resilient. There are many well-intentioned, but sadly ineffective programs that claim that by acquiring a particular protective factor or by reducing or eradicating a particular risk factor, resilience will be achieved in all situations. This is not the case.
The research has found that resilience is situational. Each of us may be more or less resilient in different situations. We may be more resilient when the negative or unwelcome experience is something we have watched others grapple with and have been successful at overcoming, have gained information and skills about how to deal with the experience, or have been successful in overcoming the experience in the past. We also will be more resilient when we are healthier and happier in our lives and conversely less resilient when we are stressed, tired, or unhealthy either physically or mentally.
The research has found that some protective factors are more important to some people and some risk factors are more lethal to other people. Not all people are effected the same way to a risk factor or to a protective factor due to past-life experiences, past successes or failures, and past witnessing others being successful or failing. Therefore, each person has their own constellation of protective factors that best supports that individual and risk factors that are particularly toxic.
So how do we get past a one-sized fits all plan for resilience? To best support resilience in all people, we need to set a “buffet table” to support protective factors that includes increasing personal characteristics and social supports, while simultaneously and actively reducing the risks that the individual is experiencing internally or in their environment.