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| Risk-taking, Perseverance and Resilience |
Risk-taking, Perseverance and Resilience
The rebuilding stage entails actively managing the illness and taking steps towards one’s goals. It is a step-by-step effort to construct a positive identity, define personally meaningful goals and to pursue them incrementally, building hope, personal empowerment, and life meaning through the journey. This process is characterized by risk-taking, as Lynch (2000) says, ‘I could begin to risk again; risk going off Social Security disablement entitlements, risk going to work again, risk returning to school. Risk giving up my identity as a ‘‘career mental patient’’’ (p. 1431).
Taking small, calculated risks and persevering in the face of set-backs helps to build resilience. A question that has arisen in the literature is whether resilient qualities are enduring traits of the person that enable them to overcome adversity, or whether resilience is a process during which the person learns from life experiences (Rutter, 2000). In a qualitative study of women who had successfully adapted to a major life event, Wagnild and Young (1993) identified five personality characteristics associated with resilience: Equanimity (composure and equilibrium under tension); Perseverance; Self-reliance; Meaningfulness; and Existential Aloneness (the need for each of us to find our unique path in life). However, Rutter (2006) asserts that, rather than being considered a stable personality trait, resilience is built through a dynamic process. Rutter holds that resilience develops from controlled exposure to risks and successful coping with challenges. The consumer literature on recovery certainly reflects this view. The key, however, is not simply successful coping, but perseverance through failures and set-backs. For example, ‘Building my social life and career slowly, step by step, sometimes losing ground, sometimes gaining, has been an essential process to recovering from my illness’ (Anonymous, 1994b, p. 25). And also:
The rebuilding stage entails actively managing the illness and taking steps towards one’s goals. It is a step-by-step effort to construct a positive identity, define personally meaningful goals and to pursue them incrementally, building hope, personal empowerment, and life meaning through the journey. This process is characterized by risk-taking, as Lynch (2000) says, ‘I could begin to risk again; risk going off Social Security disablement entitlements, risk going to work again, risk returning to school. Risk giving up my identity as a ‘‘career mental patient’’’ (p. 1431).
Taking small, calculated risks and persevering in the face of set-backs helps to build resilience. A question that has arisen in the literature is whether resilient qualities are enduring traits of the person that enable them to overcome adversity, or whether resilience is a process during which the person learns from life experiences (Rutter, 2000). In a qualitative study of women who had successfully adapted to a major life event, Wagnild and Young (1993) identified five personality characteristics associated with resilience: Equanimity (composure and equilibrium under tension); Perseverance; Self-reliance; Meaningfulness; and Existential Aloneness (the need for each of us to find our unique path in life). However, Rutter (2006) asserts that, rather than being considered a stable personality trait, resilience is built through a dynamic process. Rutter holds that resilience develops from controlled exposure to risks and successful coping with challenges. The consumer literature on recovery certainly reflects this view. The key, however, is not simply successful coping, but perseverance through failures and set-backs. For example, ‘Building my social life and career slowly, step by step, sometimes losing ground, sometimes gaining, has been an essential process to recovering from my illness’ (Anonymous, 1994b, p. 25). And also:
I continued to be mentally ill; I continued to break down; but there were long stretches
in between the breaks and they didn’t last as long as the ones before. I was beginning to get healthier as my thinking became healthier. . . . I began to believe in myself. I accepted myself just the way I was. (Schmook, 1994, p. 2) More than recovering from acute stressors, the process of building resilience in mental illness involves sustainability (Zautra, 2009). Sustainability refers to the ability to maintain psychological wellbeing in the face of ongoing challenges, and requires appraisal, planning and action (Zautra, 2009). This entails intentional risktaking to promote learning and personal growth:
Learning, like laughter, makes life fun and exciting. There is no learning that can take place without risk. We need to start rewarding calculated risks. I think if anything can teach us something about ourselves and others it is worth learning, even if it is painful. (Tenney, 2000, p. 1443)
I may have taken only small steps but I feel I have made significant strides that both time and therapy have enabled me to do. And of course, most of all, just learning from the past, growing up, living life, trusting life, have all helped give me the experience I often need. (Lynn, 1994, p. 51)
Willingness to take risks and learn from failures requires a great deal of courage and determination. Consumers wrote of their strength of will in their efforts to recover. As Wentworth (1994) says, ‘While my intention to heal never wavered, everything else did, my feelings, my behavior, and my situation. My intention was the thread I held on to’ (p. 83). And Watson (1994) explains:
First, most of us choose not to give up. We choose to continue to try to overcome that which challenges us, to hang on to hopes, to work and learn, to reach out to others and let others reach out to us. (p. 74)
If we didn’t accept our journey as a difficult one, we’d spend all our time and energy damning the journey, having nothing left to take on and overcome and heal the illness that makes that same journey so momentarily painful and challenging.
(Watson, 1994, p. 75)
The quotes in this section reflect two strands of resilience: returning from setbacks, and deliberate, considered risk-taking in the service of moving forward. As one consumer was quoted as saying, ‘psychotic people can learn from mistakes, too’ (Davidson and Strauss, 1992, p. 143). Resilience is a vital element in, and outcome of, successful recovery.
in between the breaks and they didn’t last as long as the ones before. I was beginning to get healthier as my thinking became healthier. . . . I began to believe in myself. I accepted myself just the way I was. (Schmook, 1994, p. 2) More than recovering from acute stressors, the process of building resilience in mental illness involves sustainability (Zautra, 2009). Sustainability refers to the ability to maintain psychological wellbeing in the face of ongoing challenges, and requires appraisal, planning and action (Zautra, 2009). This entails intentional risktaking to promote learning and personal growth:
Learning, like laughter, makes life fun and exciting. There is no learning that can take place without risk. We need to start rewarding calculated risks. I think if anything can teach us something about ourselves and others it is worth learning, even if it is painful. (Tenney, 2000, p. 1443)
I may have taken only small steps but I feel I have made significant strides that both time and therapy have enabled me to do. And of course, most of all, just learning from the past, growing up, living life, trusting life, have all helped give me the experience I often need. (Lynn, 1994, p. 51)
Willingness to take risks and learn from failures requires a great deal of courage and determination. Consumers wrote of their strength of will in their efforts to recover. As Wentworth (1994) says, ‘While my intention to heal never wavered, everything else did, my feelings, my behavior, and my situation. My intention was the thread I held on to’ (p. 83). And Watson (1994) explains:
First, most of us choose not to give up. We choose to continue to try to overcome that which challenges us, to hang on to hopes, to work and learn, to reach out to others and let others reach out to us. (p. 74)
If we didn’t accept our journey as a difficult one, we’d spend all our time and energy damning the journey, having nothing left to take on and overcome and heal the illness that makes that same journey so momentarily painful and challenging.
(Watson, 1994, p. 75)
The quotes in this section reflect two strands of resilience: returning from setbacks, and deliberate, considered risk-taking in the service of moving forward. As one consumer was quoted as saying, ‘psychotic people can learn from mistakes, too’ (Davidson and Strauss, 1992, p. 143). Resilience is a vital element in, and outcome of, successful recovery.
