How To Turn Vulnerability Into Resilience
Vulnerability (Latin for Vulnus = Wound) means “the quality or state of being exposed to the possibility of being attacked or harmed, either physically or emotionally”. This can be applied to acute injuries, chronic pain, or mental health. I believe that you must train both equally, and training one doesn’t train the other, this is the principle of specificity. However you do not ‘train’ them both in the same manner even though the outcome is the same, which is increased resilience to stress/load.
In my experience, people (myself included) have spent a lot of time building up themselves so that they aren’t vulnerable. This can be in the sense of physical tension, mental barriers or a combination of both. Often you can trace where this came from to a direct event, but sometimes it can be a frog in boiling water situation.
For example with acute lower back pain, someone bent over to pick up a bucket from the ground, they feel a sharp twang in their back. Often beliefs and thoughts surrounding this event is, “Oh no, I’ve broken/torn/sprained/pulled something” “What if I can’t [insert valuable activity here] any longer?!” “What if I’ve herniated a disc?!”. All of these thoughts are hypothetical but they are currently being confirmed by your brain protecting the lower back by outputting pain. This pain can be there while at rest but also during the movements of the lower back. After all stability is safer than mobility, so locking it up is the best option for the brain. The pain sets in over the next couple of minutes and maybe even the next week. You avoid bending forward again because there is pain but also a belief that you will do more damage if you keep bending forward.
There have been a couple of things that happened here; a.) you have hurt yourself and your nociceptors (chemical, mechanical and thermal receptors) are sending information up to the brain. b.) your brain is interpreting this data and signals constantly from all over your body. c.) This new information that the brain has received is interpreted as dangerous so it sends pain back to the area to protect it d.) you have become conscious of the pain and your beliefs are activated around injuries e.) this cocktail of thoughts, beliefs, sensations and chemicals all create your experience of pain. f.) you have started to form protective strategies to avoid doing this again in the form of actions and beliefs.
This can be applied to psychological insults too, according to Peter Levine, Bessel van der Kolk, Gabor Maté and Richard Schwartz, the body has an evolutionary ability to protect us. Just like we learn where food is by a complex interaction of dopamine (Dopamine Nation by Anna Lembke) the body and mind also knows how to protect itself by identifying triggers around those events. Now I mean the ‘body’ as a combination the central and peripheral nervous system, brain (physically and psychologically) and your perception of yourself (homunculus and cognitive), not just the 4 different types of tissue within the body. I also don’t think you can separate body from the mind, but you can focus on different aspects, but it’s impossible to isolate one from the other.
Pain science has been leading us down a direction that is quite similar to that of psychology. When the body gets injured we remember what injured us - or the feelings, experience and sensations around that - and the next time something comes along that the brain perceives to be very similar to that experience it will exhibit pain. Watch Lorimer Moseley explain Why things Hurt. He also has a book with David Butler called Explain Pain which is an excellent resource.
So we have seen that we have some amazing defence mechanisms at play here, psychologically and physically, that precede our ability to think consciously. I’d love for you to take a moment to write down some of the thoughts or emotions you have had while reading this, as no doubt you have been trying to relate all of this to your own lived experience.
Now another interesting paradigm shift has occurred in the science of stress. Homeostasis has been updated to inlcude Allostasis.
“Allostasis also clarifies the inherent ambiguity in the term homeostasis and distinguishes between the systems that are essential for life (homeostasis) and those that maintain these systems in balance (allostasis)” B.S. McEwen, in Reference Module in Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Psychology, 2017
Another important quote
“As long as the allostatic response is limited to the period of challenge, protection via adaptation predominates over adverse consequences. However, over weeks, months, or even years, exposure to elevated levels of stress hormones (an allostatic state) can result in allostatic load and overload, with resultant pathophysiological consequences.” B.S. McEwen, in Reference Module in Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Psychology, 2017
Here is another excellent read - “Stressed or Stressed Out: What’s the difference?”
Bringing all of these resources together what I am hoping that you can see is that vulnerability has a lot of defence mechanisms. The body and brain hate being vulnerable so they manage this risk of insult with some high level anti-insult software. The solution is Resilience (another great book “Nurturing Resilience” by Kathy Kain and Stephen Terrell) and that resilience comes in 2 main forms.
Psychological - Therapy - (IFS) Becoming self-led/Compassionate Self Inquiry (Gabor Mate)/ Somatic Experiencing (Peter Levine) AND many many other therapeutic modalities. These are just a few that I am aware of that incorporate the body into their apporach.
Physical - Progressive Overload or optimal loading of the structures and nervous system.
All of these solutions are designed to meet you where you are, and gently expand you capacity to handle load or stress. You can get stronger physically and psychologically with the correct tools and skilled guidance.
This isn’t a simple solution, I will acknowledge that. Often times even with the help of a skilled practitioner it can be slower than you want, more expensive than you can afford. But it’s important to keep trying and doing what you can.
This article is simply meant as an educational tool and to give an overview of the complexity of human being. Not to be a solution to your physical or psychological problems.
If you’d like to get stronger and rehab injuries then get in touch with me to get a training program.
BUT
If you are experiencing any mental health issues please reach out to a qualified health professional, reading these books and resources are great, but often trying to piece it together yourself is frustrating and tiring process. I am not a qualified therapist and cannot help you with these resources, these are simply some resources that have helped me.
Most of these books have therapists attached to them, so if one resonates with you, then take the time to find a therapist who is qualified and practices the modality. There are plenty of amazing one’s out there and there are more therapeutic modalities than I have named here.
Google these to find the appropriate therapists for you and your location
IFS Therapists (Richard Schwartz)
Somatic Experiencing Therapists (Peter Levine)
Compassionate Inquiry Therapists (Gabor Maté)
Or simply a psychologist in your area
Here is a list of resources that you can access right now for FREE that can help you NOW if you’re in Australia.
https://www.healthdirect.gov.au/mental-health-resources