The Power of Human Resilience

Now they tell us.

Recently, psychiatry has been abuzz with what are called resilience studies. I have occasionally mentioned them on this blog.

These studies show that most people recover from trauma without undergoing therapy. They show that the human mind is more resilient than we think. 

This means, to put a finer point on it, that when media talking heads suggest that some traumas are so horrific that they will scar victims for life-- they don’t know what they are talking about. They are letting their overheated and hysterical brains jump to an extreme conclusion. 

In another context, it is lawyer speak. When lawyers are prosecuting those who inflict traumas or are suing for damages on behalf of a trauma victim they are naturally prone to exaggerate the ill-effects of trauma. And yet, when such thinking makes its way into the media, it persuades persuade people that they have been scarred for life-- that they can never recover. Obviously enough, this makes it more difficult for people to recover. Duh?

And, dare I mention, before introducing a lucid exposition of the phenomenon of human resilience, that therapists have a vested interest in thinking that patients can never recover from their traumas-- without some serious long-term therapy. And when this therapy does not produce the desired effect-- if patients got better quickly it would be bad for the therapy business-- they can blame it on the fact that trauma, by their dim lights, produces irreversible damage.

Anyway, Dr. Richard Friedman explains the latest thinking on resilience in a New York Times column. He is addressing the chances for recovery when people have suffered for being locked, masked and socially distanced for a year now.

While the pandemic has undeniably caused extraordinary stress and sadness, research on human resilience suggests that people will recover from the trauma of the pandemic faster than many believe. And while certain groups may need mental health care for the longer term, it’s also true that humans’ ability to overcome adversity is often underestimated and that an overwhelming majority of people who suffer trauma will not develop mental illness but eventually feel better….

This is not to suggest that the impact of Covid-19 on mental health isn’t real, nor that it won’t be long-lasting in some cases. It is real, and it will linger for many. But it’s also important to underscore that most people who are exposed to stress and trauma do not necessarily develop clinical depression or post-traumatic stress disorder. Sure, they experience anxiety and sadness, but these mental health states can lift soon after stress abates.

Friedman next outlines the best research about whether trauma does or does not produce mental illness:

Studies suggest that up to about 90 percent of Americans have experienced a traumatic event, yet the prevalence of PTSD is estimated to be 6.8 percent. So while exposure to traumatic events is common, only a small minority of people develop PTSD as a result. Follow-up studies of trauma victims with PTSD in the general population show that the symptoms decrease significantly within three months after trauma and that about 66 percent of those with PTSD eventually recover.

Trauma does not reliably produce illness, which is important to remember when looking at how people are responding to the pandemic as it unfolds. A recent study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that from August 2020 to February 2021, the percentage of adults with recent symptoms of anxiety and depression increased to 41.5 percent from 36.4 percent.

But most surveys like this assess symptoms at a given point in time, which could turn out to be transient. These surveys are also conducted online, using rating scales that don’t reliably establish a clinical diagnosis. Other research tracking people with diagnosed mental health conditions haven’t found an increase in symptom severity during the pandemic.

As for what steps may be taken to increase resilience, Dr. Friedman lists those that I have been recommending on this blog:

But there are things that people can do to foster emotional and physical resilience, including maintaining social bonds, getting regular exercise and finding ways to reduce stress, among other things. Social support, for example, has been shown to strengthen resilience by increasing self-esteem and the sense of control. Social connectedness also inhibits activation of fear and anxiety circuits in the brain.

Emphasis on social connection.