By the time you reach 50 you know that life is not always a bed of roses. It doesn’t seem fair when bad things happen to good people, but that doesn’t keep them from happening. When bad things happen, don’t be surprised if you feel blindsided. Fortunately, most people are resilient to some degree, and resilience is the single most important factor when it comes to overcoming adversity. Sometimes physical illness, a death in the family, depression, loneliness or divorce can weaken your reserves, but most people are stronger than they think they are. Older people are stronger than you might imagine, and it is human nature to fight to regain control over daunting situations.
Resilience is the ability to adapt or bounce back following adversity. Resilience is the hallmark of successful aging. You may be surprised to learn that most people feel that they are aging well despite having chronic physical illnesses and some disability. Resilient individuals do not give up.
People with chronic illnesses have more than their share of adversity. I marvel at people who are able to overcome chronic pain, blindness, paraplegia, and other catastrophic events and still manage to live rewarding and satisfying lives. If nothing else, they serve as an inspiration to the rest of us. At the very least we should feel just a little bit ashamed if we don’t have the gumption to face our own challenges.
People living with chronic disease and disabilities face challenges every day of their lives. Arthritis Today Magazine (January/February 2012) featured an article by Camille Noe Pagan on resilience. The article has a quiz that you can take to figure out how resilient you are. It is just a mini questionnaire but I thought it pegged me rather well, or at least I hope it did. I tested out as being relatively resilient, which means I bounce back most of the time. We could all hope that we would fall into the ‘touch as Teflon” category, but you would have to be pretty perfect for that to happen. I am more of a wait and see kind of gal. The advice given, of course, is to focus on the positive, to learn from experience and ask for help. No matter how much you read, your health care team is better equipped to help you formulate a plan than anyone else. It stands to reason that expanding your knowledge base, fitting in an exercise program and saying yes to a support system will go along way toward helping you built the resilience that you need. You may meet some stinkers along the way, but most people are truly amazing. Arthritis Today magazine (www.arthritistoday.org) regularly features articles about coping with chronic disabilities.
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