22 October 2022
If, in the face of stressors, you are able to quickly respond and calm down, you are resilient; if you have “blunted or exaggerated responses” you may be approaching a dysfunctional state (Hunter et al., 2018, p. 317). If you were fortunate, you had caring, affectionate relationships with your parents or caregivers, strong social support, and systems that fostered meaningful interpretations of adversity (Horn et al. in Hunter, 2018, p. 319). Such systems could be religion or a philosophical optimism that taught you to live and let live, accepting things as they came, and letting go of harmful or adverse circumstances.
Remember Alice? She was the young girl, an only child, who awoke one night to hear a violent fight between both intoxicated parents. I can foresee two routes through life for Alice though that’s for the convenience of this blog. In truth, there are probably a limitless number, but I suspect these two themes are consistent with most scenarios.
In the first scenario, Alice awakens the next morning in deep fear. Though she wouldn’t use such words, some of that fear is existential in that her parents—her source of meaning, food, clothing, and affection—may not be reliable. In simpler terms, her world rests on a more fragile foundation than Alice imagined.
So, Alice turns inward because she feels alone and ashamed as she assumes no one else has parents like hers. She is one of those kids who isn’t part of a group, who tries to minimize her presence and impact, and hopes—somehow—to get through. But Alice is no longer sure what it is she wishes to get through, or where that would take her. As puberty takes hold, Alice becomes more attractive to some of her classmates. Before long, in a desperate quest for positive attention, Alice is pregnant. Her choices have just narrowed and, either way, there are heavy consequences. You get the picture.
In the second scenario, picking up from Alice’s pregnancy, Alice is seen crying, behind some trees near the parking lot, by a high school guidance counsellor returning from lunch. The counsellor says nothing but goes back to her office, finds Alice’s image and name in last year’s yearbook, and has Alice called to her office. Let’s look at the science to see some of the best choices that counsellor could make.
First, that counsellor, let’s call her Elaine, looks through Alice’s school record. What she sees is not unusual. Alice, an A student through junior school has dropped to a C+/B- student through grades 9 and 10. Alice has also started missing classes, but only very recently. Elaine has some questions for Alice.
As discussed last week, toxic stress is a level of stress that misshapes us; it is typically uncontrollable, severe, and/or chronic. Knowing this, Elaine wants to get a sense of Alice’s stress levels. Hunter et al. (2018, p. 310) view changes in neurological architecture, resulting from stress, not as reversals but as neuroplastic adaptation. This was discussed in earlier blogs, e.g., (https://understandings.ca/2022/02/09/embodied-active-situated-intelligence-assumptions-iii/)
Some of the relevant points made were that
a) there is an inborn force of cohesion within us;
b) that we seek to understand and grow;
c) that each of us is on an upward or downward trajectory, often without seeking awareness of our direction;
d) that health is made up of consistent, holistic actions directed toward well-spiritedness; and
e) that when the cohesion of self mentioned in “a,” above, is violated, stress, trauma, and unhappiness are the result.
With these in mind, Elaine asks Alice if she is comfortable talking to her. Alice is so alone that she almost rejects the offered hand but something else, a quiet voice she pays too little attention to, tells her to accept that hand. Before the meeting is over Alice has used many tissues and Elaine is aware that Alice is pregnant with almost no desire to enter motherhood, particularly alone and without a life path charted for her.
Hunter et al. wrote about life-course health development (LCHD). Studies of LCHD are indicating that developmental events have later health-based impacts on our entire lives with the net effect of adverse events being the degradation of our resilience or the inhibition of the development of resilience, all of which means we ain’t bouncing back, we’re puddles on the pavement in the face of setbacks! But Alice’s meeting with Elaine is a juncture in Alice’s LCHD. Interestingly, neither Elaine nor Alice need be aware of the importance of that first meeting.
Attributes associated with higher resilience in adults include “...positive outlook, emotional regulatory capacity, social support, and coping strategies” (Hunter et al., 2018, p. 320). Perhaps most significantly, “active coping both at the time of trauma and while re-experiencing it promotes resilience, as opposed to avoidant or emotionally oriented coping strategies” (LeDoux & Gorman, 2001, et al., in Hunter, 2018). Humour is also known to aid resilience.
Of those attributes, which does Alice begin to possess—as she leaves Elaine’s office for the first time, with appointments to see a therapist and a physician? Her outlook has improved, her sense of autonomy has grown wildly as she’s made some major decisions without even checking in with her ailing parents. Alice now has the professional support of a guidance counsellor, a therapist, and an MD. She is also aware of one or two coping strategies.
Other factors, known to build resilience in early years, are “positive relationships with caregivers and peers, consistent parenting, social frameworks that promote meaning, intelligence, high emotional self-regulation, and self-efficacy or mastery, many of which are potentially modifiable with clinical or family-centred interventions” (Hunter et al., 2018, p. 321). That bolded part means it is never too late to foster the change and growth that Hunter & Co. are on about.
It is also important to note that an absence of adversity is not necessarily helpful in building resilience, as one needs exposure to “controllable stressors” to learn resilience. So, if Alice has setbacks on her new path—and she will—they don’t have to be permanent, but only temporary setbacks. As a lovely Japanese saying puts it, Fall seven, rise eight.
As with Alice’s home life, so with many others, as Freud and Patterson, one early 20th C and one late, affirmed the importance of familial relationships as formative of resilience-based attributes with “disruptive behaviour” being a strong indicator of lower resilience. “Disruptive behaviour was found to be most likely in families with harsh, unevenly applied discipline and low levels of caregiver warmth and support” (Capaldi & Patterson, 1994, et al. in Hunter et al. 2018, p 321).
Other positive factors were listed as school-based interventions, stress inoculation training, relaxation techniques, the creation of meaning, achieving competence, meditation, mindfulness, and “most significantly,” aerobic exercise as it expands the volume in the part of the brain (HPA axis) which controls our reactions to stress. Relatedly, that part of the brain also modulates immunity, digestion, energy, mood, and our sexual drives.
To wrap up these three blogs, we’ll return to consilience, the idea of multi-sourced science. When we look at Alice’s story, it is as much a product of her high school’s social system, the counsellor’s compassion and training, and Alice’s willingness to work on herself. Who knows, Alice may be helped by anti-depressants or anxiolytics both of which have been used to increase the rate of neuroplasticity or brain change. The point is, it takes a village of researchers, on-the-ground case workers, and counsellors to identify, treat, and understand.
Dan Chalykoff is working toward an M.Ed. in Counselling Psychology and accreditation in Professional Addiction Studies. He writes these blogs to increase (and share) his own evolving understandings of ideas. Since 2017, he has facilitated two voluntary weekly group meetings of SMART Recovery. Please email him (danchalykoff@hotmail.com) to be added to or removed from the Bcc’d emailing list.
References
Hunter, R. G., Gray, J. D. & McEwen, B. S. (2018). The neuroscience of resilience. Journal of the Society of Social Work and Research, Vol. 9: 2.
McEwen, B. S. (2000). Allostasis and allostatic load: Implications for neuropsychopharmacology. Neuropsychopharmacology 2000-Vol. 22, No.2, Elsevier Science Inc.
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