Dr. Friedman

Experts have long been interested in why some people are more resilient than others in the face of stress, including after events like wars and natural disasters. Some of it is genetic, and some of it is a person’s life circumstances. Things like having a steady income, family support and access to health care can affect how people handle traumatic events.

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.

There is no question that this has been a stressful and brutal year marked by untold loss and grief. I lost my splendid 94-year-old mother to Covid-19, and I’m still sad. But people should feel a measure of relief at having navigated Covid to this point, and not forget the fact that humans are more resilient than we realize. We can bounce back.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/04/opinion/covid-brain-mental-health.html

Dr. Friedman is a psychiatrist and an expert in the neurobiology and treatment of mood and anxiety disorders and has done research in depression.