Resiliency

Resiliency is a key fighting attribute. To be able to quickly recover from the shock and surprise of an initial assault and bounce back to your trained personality and mindset is an important and essential skill to have, in order to survive a confrontation. However, resiliency isn’t something that we just want to have in one area of our life – such as being able to deal with violence – it’s something we want to have in all areas, whether it’s loss of employment, the breakdown of a social relationship, or even something like surviving an extended lockdown period; and not everybody is coping and managing the stresses of quarantine well – humans are not well fitted to deal with both isolation and enforced close proximity; both can lead to an increase in aggression and violence. Konrad Lorenz writes about a condition he refers to as “Polar Disease” or “Expedition Choler” which refers to the damming up of natural aggression, that results in outburst of low-level aggression over minor things e.g. before lockdown you might not have noticed that certain family members do things that are really, really annoying, such as the way they sneeze or clear their throat, etc. – things that before you were subjected to on a frequent basis, but had other areas of your life that you could direct your aggression at, now become major and serious triggers for you; Cabin Fever has a very scientific basis to it. In this article, I want to look at resiliency during lockdown, looking at how individuals in survival situations manage their isolation and monotony, along with prisoners serving long-term sentences. I’m certainly not suggesting that this current lockdown is representative of either, however these types of situation can help teach us and guide us to be more resilient.

Plan and follow a routine. We underestimate the importance of planning to our mental health. My mother has Alzheimer’s Disease; in many cases sufferers will lose memory for faces, events and incidents, etc. but still be able to remember how to perform tasks (this is a different area of memory), such as how to use cutlery, etc. My mother’s form is severe and there are many tasks she simply can’t do anymore, as she can’t access those memories. When she was first diagnosed, I started researching academic papers and literature, etc. - not because I believed I could/would find a cure – that would be extremely arrogant and naïve – but because I wanted to understand the disease; this was partly for selfish reasons, because if there were any genetic predispositions, I wanted to understand what I could do to avoid the disease (in only 1% of cases do genetic mutations mean that the disease is inevitable). Every study I read, concerning prevention, talked about sufferers of the disease, having given up on planning in the years before the disease took over; these were individuals who were still mentally and physically active but had given over the planning aspect of their lives to others. I remember my mother saying when she retired from being a school principal, that she no longer had to plan, and that this was an area of her life that she was glad to lose. In 1981, Steve Callahan’s yacht was overturned and sank – he believes a whale hit it – and he began a survival episode that saw him spend 76 days adrift in a life raft. He credits his maintenance of sanity, in part to the routines he set up and the plans that he made e.g. he planned for when he would empty the solar stills, when he would catch fish, when he needed to make repairs to the raft, and even when he exercised, etc. It is very easy to fall into the trap of not planning, especially when nothing appears urgent or pressing, however planning is as much about organizing and exercising the mind as it is about accomplishing tasks (that could possibly “wait” or be put off).

I can personally think of few more frightening things than entering a prison, knowing that you’re looking to serve 10-15 years. Although every crime survey I’ve ever read has always had the public demanding tougher, harsher, and longer sentences for criminals, I think few who respond have really considered the impact on the individual of long-term incarceration as a form of punishment. I’m not saying that there isn’t a role in the criminal justice system for these types of sentence, but rather that people rarely put themselves in the shoes of those doing time. The first penal research I ever read, as an undergraduate, was about long-term imprisonment. It was an early 1970’s study of prisoners, serving sentences of at least 10 years, in a high security prison in Durham, by Stanley Cohen and Laurie Taylor, that resulted in a book called “Psychological Survival”. The study resulted organically from sociology classes that Cohen and Taylor were delivering to inmates once a week – this was the first time that educational services to long-term prisoners were delivered in the UK. Whilst there had been several large-scale studies conducted regarding prisoners serving short and medium sentences, there were none looking at this specific, smaller population. A large part of this group’s time was spent acquiring knowledge through reading and writing, as they felt it important that their time inside wasn’t wasted. Many refrained from “working” even though this brought financial reward, as the work was simply “busy work” and wasn’t stimulating (part of this was also not wanting to become part of the system). It was also interesting to note in the study, that few speculated on the amount of time they would serve, and when questioned would always exaggerate it, so that they didn’t have to get into a debate and discussion which would make them realize they might spend more time inside than their original sentence demanded.

Whilst we may speculate on when lockdown will end i.e. will it be when our politicians, governors stated it would at the beginning of this period or will it be extended, etc., it may be better for our mental health to not engage in such thought processes and debates; as a small business owner who is shutdown at the moment, I find this extremely difficult, however trying to predict an actual date when things may start to relax is stressful, and I find it better to just keep working – there are always ways to work, such as writing, designing courses, providing online content, etc., and it is my goal to keep doing this. I plan, I have routines, including when I exercise, when I take walks, when I do schoolwork, etc. I’m certainly not saying I’ve cracked it, and there are times I have to remember what day it is, and I’m starting to have the strange dreams that are part of reduced or social isolation (if you’re having them too, it’s normal), but I look at those who have to manage time in much harder situations, and know it can be done, whilst staying sane.