Intro: Weekly Theme 3 - Resilience
- Nov 30, 2025
- 3 min read
Resilience: What is it?
Resilience is not just the absence of psychopathology (mental illness or disorder) but the ability of the person to successfully adapt to adversities over their life.
Resilience is the both the process of preventing and taking care of your health after challenges and making swift recovery from the mental health issues that occurs from that trial.
Neurobiology of Resilience
Resilience is greatly controlled by the neurocircuitries of our brain stress response and reward experience.
Our brain needs to response well to stress, which means our brain’s stress response must properly turn on and turn off at the right time. During our stress response, the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis turns on, then releases a hormones corticotrophin (CRH) and adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH). ACTH induces the release of cortisol (GC), which promotes adaptive behavior to cope with stress—but is harmful in the long term.
Resilience is also connected by our reward experience. The neurocircuitry of reward experiences happen through proper activation and regulation of the mesolimbic dopaminergic projections that connect the Ventral Tegmental Area (VTA) to the nucleus accumbens (NAc). This circuit puts together sensory experiences with cognitive control and uses it to help regulate dopamine.
Psychology of Resilience
There are many factors that play into the part of someone’s degree of resilience. Research shows that there are three main building blocks of resilience: secure attachment, positive emotions, and purpose of life.
Attachments develop at a young age, and the link between secure attachment and resilience happens through the internal working model that is formed during a child’s attachment experiences. Securely attached children are thought have form internal models of viewing themselves of worth, seeing others as a way of available support, and challenges as something manageable with peer aid.
Positive emotions can fight against the effects of stress. Not only can they increase psychological health, positive emotions can decrease pain experience and pain catastrophizing. For example, positive emotion interventions such as meditation or mindfulness are promising to increasing an individual’s resilience.
Purpose in life is a higher level of living, driven by personal values and goals. Purpose in life decreases suicidal ideation and buffers the effects of mental illnesses. Additionally, religion and spirituality seem to also promote resilience.
7 Small Steps Towards Building Resilience
Keep a list of the challenges you’ve overcome - as a reminder that you are strong and you’ve done hard things before.
Take care of your body - Breathing exercises and stretching once a day. Ground your physical self before tackling your mental issues.
Prioritize Relationships - Form connections with people you know are available and ready to help you in need.
Service for others - Volunteer or support another friend in need, sometimes all it takes is it take your mind off of yourself.
Think in your circle of control - Focus on the problems that you can solve, don’t waste time worrying about things out of your control.
Look for room for growth - After a challenge, or even before, think of either what you have gained from the process or what you will gain from it.
Maintain a Hopeful Outlook - Sometimes this can be hard, but try to think about what good things can come out of this trial. Think: “It will all be worth it once it’s over.”
References
Rutten, B. P. F., Hammels, C., Geschwind, N., Menne-Lothmann, C., Pishva, E., Schruers, K., van den Hove, D., Kenis, G., van Os, J., & Wichers, M. (2013). Resilience in mental health: Linking psychological and neurobiological perspectives. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 128(1), 3–20. https://doi.org/10.1111/acps.12095
American Psychological Association. (2020). Building your resilience. American Psychological Association. https://www.apa.org/topics/resilience/building-your-resilience
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