Healthy living Overcoming crises through resilience

In short, resilience is a form of mental strength: resilient people can usually cope well with challenging situations or crises. They can draw on supportive resources in their environment, such as family and the health care system. Thanks to this support and their own skills, they may develop and grow through dealing with challenges or even traumatic experiences. As a result, resilience may provide some protection against mental health conditions.

Everyone has the potential for resilience. This potential can be externally strengthened through supportive factors and internally strengthened through the development of healthy attitudes and thoughts. As such, resilience is not a personality trait. It is flexible and can change over time. It is also influenced not only by personal factors, but also by an individual’s environment and life circumstances. For example, political systems can create conditions that support or reduce resilience.

People can also present different levels of resilience in different areas. For example, someone could quickly recover from their grief after the unexpected death of a parent and be able to get on with their life. Yet the same person might develop severe anxiety and suffer from depression after a serious traffic accident.

A person’s resilience in a crisis depends on the relationship between risk factors and protective factors. If the protective factors outweigh the risk factors, people are able to cope better with a crisis or even a traumatic experience.

Protective factor: social resources

Protective factors in the environment are known as social resources. They include loving family relationships. A stable social environment with supportive relationships, for example, with friends or with a partner, can be another important social resource. Health-promoting factors and sources of help and support in the community are other social resources. A fulfilling job can also be a social resource.

Protective factor: personal resources

Individual, or internal, protective factors are known as personal resources. These include strengths such as intelligence, creativity or an active, sociable personality. Social skills, problem-solving skills and self-efficacy are also important resilience factors. Self-efficacy means believing in yourself and your own abilities. A secure attachment to your parents can also be a protective factor in later life. This is because secure attachment fosters self-confidence as well as trust in other people and the world.

Risk factors

While protective factors increase resilience, internal and external risk factors can reduce it. Important examples of external risk factors include poverty, experiences of childhood abuse, mental health conditions in parents, discrimination, migration or the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Examples of internal risk factors include certain genes related to mental health conditions, emotional instability or the tendency to focus on problems.

In the past, the development of resilience was sometimes thought to be entirely dependent on individual protective factors and risk factors. However, it is now understood that resilience is always also influenced by external factors – both positively and negatively. In the face of war and other traumatic events, resilience among those affected decreases. An approach that ignores external risk and protective factors is therefore insufficient.

Society, with all of its institutions, is responsible for many external factors that affect people’s resilience. For example, political decisions can help preserve peace, provide citizens with access to social security and education, and maintain and develop health and social welfare systems. Political decisions at national and international levels and the quality of social welfare, educational and health systems influence everyone’s resilience.

The American Psychological Association (APA) has derived recommendations from years of research. These can help people deal better with crises and stressful times.

Strengthen relationships

Relationships are particularly important in difficult times. By talking to others, people do not feel as alone during a crisis. This can strengthen resilience. One option is to join a group. This could be a faith community, a self-help group, a sports club or a choir.

Promote physical and mental health

Self-care can help reduce ongoing physical and mental stress. This includes eating healthily, getting enough sleep and doing regular exercise.

Alcohol, drugs and medication, on the other hand, are not suitable as long-term ways of coping with stress.

Mindfulness, relaxation, yoga, prayer or similar practices can increase wellbeing. It can help people to focus on the positive aspects of life and the things for which they are grateful.

Help others

Helping others can be extremely fulfilling. Whether you are helping a homeless person or a friend, doing so can increase your sense of self-worth and strengthen your connection with others. This also strengthens your mental resilience.

Focus on solutions and take action

Spending too long focusing only on a specific problem can have a paralyzing effect. An alternative approach is to seek solutions. You could ask yourself: “What can I do to resolve this problem?” If a problem seems insurmountable at first, consider what small steps you can take towards a solution.

Set goals

Goals can provide direction and motivation. For example, you could ask yourself where you would like to be in one to five years from now. This gets you thinking about what you need to do to achieve that goal. It is important to set realistic intermediate goals. It is better to set yourself lots of small, achievable goals than a large, unachievable one.

Personal development

In a difficult situation, you could look for things that enable you to develop and grow as a person. For example, some people feel that critical life events bring them closer to others. This can increase their confidence and appreciation for life.

Helpful thoughts

People sometimes tend to dramatize or overgeneralize things or to take them too personally. If an event is overwhelming, it helps to remember that you are not powerless: you have the ability to shape your life. In many cases, you cannot change what has happened, but you can influence how you think and respond.

Accept change

Change is part of life. Some goals or ideals may no longer be achievable due to difficulties that have arisen. Accepting this can help you focus on the things that you can achieve.

Learn from the past

You may already have overcome several crises in your life. Think about what helped you do this. You may be able to use your past experiences to deal with a new challenging situation.

Seek help

When facing crises, some people feel like they can no longer cope with their everyday lives or are emotionally overwhelmed. This is perfectly normal and seeking professional help is not a sign of weakness. A therapeutic relationship with a psychotherapist allows you to work together to find solutions. It is important for you to find a psychotherapist who you trust. Psychotherapy can support you in many different ways.

Resilience training

Group resilience training can also increase mental resilience. Effective training programs can be based on mindfulness practices, cognitive behavioral therapy techniques or a combination of the two. Training programs are available for different ages and target groups.

The Prevention Green List (“grüne Liste Prävention”) registry run by the State Crime Prevention Council for Lower Saxony (Landespräventionsrat Niedersachsen) and Hannover Medical School (Medizinische Hochschule Hannover) provides an overview of various training programs for children and adolescents.