Road to Resilience
[This article first appeared in the PAGER newsletter, Reflux Digest, June 2004]

The American Psychiatric Association has an extensive brochure about stress and learning to cope. It is titled, “The Road to Resilience.” It can help those who are overwhelmed remember how they have coped with smaller crisis in the past, identify the ways that they coped back then, and apply them to the current situation.

Resilience is the process of adapting well in the face of adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats, or even significant sources of stress — such as family and relationship problems, serious health problems, or workplace and financial stressors. It means "bouncing back" from difficult experiences.

Developing resilience is a personal journey. People do not all react the same to traumatic and stressful life events. An approach to building resilience that works for one person might not work for another. People use varying strategies.

Take a look at the brochure which contains 10 ways to improve resilience and a list of places to look for help. You can read the text online, download it or order printed copies.

http://www.apahelpcenter.org/featuredtopics/feature.php?id=6