Resilience is “hard-wired”

March 24th, 2008 at 10:36pm Raymond C. Garcia M.D.

The Antidepressant Song

As a witness to the various ways that individuals survive the ravages caused by mental illness, I am always impressed at how resilient human beings truly can be. I have seen people return from the pits of despair and the chaos of psychosis to resume (or perhaps begin) productive and engaged lives, functioning in their communities in the “social role of their choice” (quoted from an older version of the Mission Statement of Singer Mental Health Center). It is a common misconception that mental illness does not respond very well to treatment.

As a medical student, I was once discouraged by a respected mentor from choosing psychiatry as my specialty because he believed that mental illness is primarily caused by “social problems that cannot be resolved.” He could not have been more wrong, and I am glad not to have heeded his advice. I could argue that diabetes is just as frustrating an illness to treat since many people do not do well because they choose not to follow their prescribed diets, exercise regularly, or take their medications correctly. The fact is that mental illness does respond well to treatment, and much of that is owed not only to the marvels of modern medicine, but to the innate human capacity for adaptation.

When I was asked to blog on this site, I was unsure as to what to expound upon. I’ve written essays in school newsletters and journals before, and I still write an occasional column for the staff newsletter at Singer. But those diatribes have been shaped and focused by the specific audiences I was addressing. This is the first time I have been asked to write for a general audience, but it occurred to me that perhaps part of the reason I was selected for this board was to offer my own unique perspective as a psychiatrist in this community. So I will probably be writing a lot about mental health issues, although I may diverge to other topics from time to time.

For now I will be focusing on this idea of Resilience, something on which I have given much thought lately not only because of the experiences of my patients, but because of my own experience with surviving stress. Stay tuned…

Raymond C. Garcia, M.D.

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