Self-Management of Depression

When faced with trauma, mental health influencers often "therapy speak" people into becoming more resilient and growing from such a challenge. This narrative, however, encourages people to internalize the message that adversity should always lead to growth or that trauma is a prerequisite for growth. In  the psychological lexicon, this positive outcome, or "bouncing forward" following adversity, is called  posttraumatic growth  or an overlapping concept,  benefit-finding and growth  (Lechner et al., 2009) . While benefit-finding and growth captures more of the lifestyle, behavior, and perceptual changes, posttraumatic growth tends to refer to the transformative changes occurring at a cognitive level, i.e., how one becomes wiser (Lechner et al., 2009). People who experience posttraumatic growth describe it in one or more of the following ways (Hefferon et al., 2009): Reappraisal of one’s life and restructuring of previous priorities Revaluation and changing of li...

What is Hardiness? A lot has been talked about resilience in popular media and, regrettably, most of these discussions don't go beyond the oft-repeated wellness strategies. In this context, hardiness is a psychological construct that contributes to resilience but has received little attention. Previously labeled as existential courage, hardiness is a pattern of attitudes and strategies that together facilitate turning stressful circumstances from potential disasters into growth opportunities. Hardiness functions as a resistance resource in buffering the effects of stressful events and thus contributes to resilience. The 3 Cs of hardiness that help hardy individuals cope better with stress are as follows (Kobasa et al., 1982): Commitment: Commitment is the belief that no matter how bad things get, you will stay involved with whatever is happening, rather than sinking into detachment, passivity, or avoidance. Commitment helps you have a generalized sense of purpose that allows you t...