Resiliency and Anxiety: Changing Outlook Can Change Lives | Maryellen Dance | TEDxNazarethCollege
Resiliency is the power to adapt, and the speaker argues that modern focus on anxiety dangerously weakens this innate capacity. She counters that seeking support for suffering and recognizing one's resilience are complementary, suggesting promoting strategies like Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) to retrain focus away from worry. The strongest evidence presented is that people who believe they can manage stress have a decreased risk of dying, according to Kelli McGonigal's studies. ## Speakers & Context - Unnamed speaker. - The talk aims to redirect focus from generalized anxiety towards recognizing inherent human resiliency. - The speaker notes the current mental health movement, while acknowledging its value, expresses concern that it may inadvertently strengthen anxious neural pathways. ## Theses & Positions - **Resiliency:** Defined as the power to adapt. - **Resiliency is not:** The absence of pain, the absence of suffering, or proof of being the smartest or the best. - **Core Claim:** Seeking support for suffering and recognizing one's resiliency are not mutually exclusive; both must happen simultaneously. - **Challenge:** The current focus risks strengthening anxious neural pathways while weakening resilient ones, leading to a fixed mindset. - **Solution:** Promote the relearning of resiliency by changing thought patterns to focus on one's adaptive capacity rather than current anxiety. ## Concepts & Definitions - **Resiliency:** The power to adapt. - **Anxiety:** Difficulty controlling feelings of worry, which involves uncertainty, unease, and allowing the mind to dwell on difficulties or struggles. - **Fixed Mindset:** The belief that traits like personality and intelligence are fixed and unchanging, exemplified by saying, "Oh, I’m just an anxious person." - **Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT):** An evidence-based therapy that involves challenging one's own thoughts. ## Mechanisms & Processes - **Innate Resiliency:** Demonstrated by a baby learning to walk, falling, and getting up repeatedly. - **Learned Resiliency:** Developed over time, alongside learning one's weaknesses and experiencing failures. - **Neural Pathway Strengthening:** The more one focuses on, talks about, or engages with a thought pattern, the thicker and stronger the corresponding neural pathway becomes. - **CBT Mechanism:** Changing the focus from *how anxious you are* to *how resilient you are*. ## Timeline & Sequence - **Specific Anecdote:** Witnessing a change in mask-wearing etiquette in the grocery store between February of 2020 and a few weeks later. - **Developmental Sequence:** Baby learning to walk (innate) $\rightarrow$ Adult learning/failing (learned weakness) $\rightarrow$ Current mental health focus (risk of over-indexing on worry). ## Named Entities - None. ## Numbers & Data - CBT effectiveness range: **50 to 75%** effective at helping anxiety and depression. ## Examples & Cases - **Adaptation Example:** Adapting from seeing mask-wearing in a grocery store to seeing non-mask-wearing in the same location in a few weeks. - **Biological Example:** A baby falling while learning to walk and getting up every single time. - **CBT Example:** The process of challenging thoughts rather than simply accepting the feeling of worry. - **Stress Management Data:** Kelli McGonigal's study cited: people who believe they can manage stress have a decreased risk of dying compared to those who do not believe they can manage stress. - **Connection Data:** Dr. Brené Brown's findings: people who believe they are worthy of human connection are more likely to have fulfilling connections. ## Tools, Tech & Products - **Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)** — therapeutic intervention. ## References Cited - **Kelli McGonigal:** Cited for stress studies regarding belief in managing stress and mortality risk. - **Dr. Brené Brown:** Cited regarding the link between believing one is worthy of human connection and having fulfilling relationships. ## Counterarguments & Caveats - **Misunderstanding of Anxiety:** The idea that simply telling someone "don't dwell on your worries" is sufficient for managing anxiety. - **Risk of Current Movement:** The potential for the current mental health movement to strengthen anxious neural pathways. ## Methodology - Observing daily adaptations (mask use). - Analogy drawing from infancy development (baby falling/getting up). - Identifying and challenging fixed, limiting thought patterns (fixed mindset). ## Conclusions & Recommendations - **Primary Recommendation:** Promote the relearning of resiliency by giving people support for suffering while simultaneously reminding them of their own existing resilience. - **Actionable Goal:** To "embrace resilience" by remembering past instances of recovery and getting back up. ## Implications & Consequences - If the focus remains solely on anxiety, it risks reinforcing neural patterns of worry and creating a fixed mindset regarding personal capability. - True mental health progress requires addressing the underlying capacity for adaptation alongside the symptoms of distress. ## Verbatim Moments - *"Resiliency is the power to adapt."* - *"Resiliency is not the absence of pain. It is not the absence of suffering."* - *"Seeking support for our suffering and recognizing how resilient we are are not mutually exclusive."* - *"It’s okay. You can do it, it’s fine."* - *"What you focus on grows."* - *"We are not just anxious people. We are people who may struggle with some anxiety for good reason, who also have a lot more resiliency than we realize."* - *"We do two things. The first thing to do is to promote the relearning of resiliency."* - *"I want to change that thinking to focus on how resilient you are instead."* - *"What do we do about this? Well, I’m glad you asked."* - *"I challenge us all to do what we’re born to do - to do one of the things that we do best, to embrace resilience."*