Challenging times, stressful phases. What does this do to us? And above all: How do we deal with it? We asked Dr. Sarie Haisch! Here are her insights for more resilience in everyday life.
About the person:
Dr. med. Sarie Ann Haisch is a practicing specialist in psychiatry and psychotherapy at the Areion Competence Center in Neu-Ulm, specializing in the treatment of stress-associated disorders. She previously worked in various inpatient facilities, e.g., the Ulm University Hospital, the Sanatorium Kilchberg in Switzerland, and the Center for Psychiatry in Ravensburg. In addition, she completed training as a business coach at CIP Munich. Beyond her therapeutic work, she offers seminars and workshops for companies. Her focus areas include burnout prevention, healthy employee management, and strengthening resilience.
What do crises mean for each individual? That is certainly a highly personal answer. Nevertheless, studies, panel surveys, and mood barometers are already providing alarming initial findings: Covid has demanded a lot from Germans, not just physically, but also mentally.
A development that Dr. Sarie Haisch can also confirm. As a specialist in psychosomatic medicine, she is in many ways the first point of contact for her patients. Medicom spoke with her about resilience and fears in times of crisis.
Medicom: Currently, many people are experiencing a feeling of loss of control, anxiety, and despair. It is not just those with pre-existing mental health issues who are affected, but also an increasing number of people who otherwise enjoy good resilience. What is happening to us on a psychological level? It feels like we are lurching from one crisis to the next…
Dr. Sarie Haisch: Yes, it doesn't just feel that way. In fact, two crises have recently merged seamlessly—meaning: people have had hardly any time to recover from the loss of control caused by Covid before moving on to the next one caused by the war situation. The stress nervous system is wired so that a phase of activation is followed by a phase of regeneration. And that hasn't been possible at all over the past few years. Added to this is a sense of helplessness: many have had and still have the feeling of being exposed to all of this and unable to do anything. That is difficult for the psyche and the stress nervous system to endure. We handle situations that we have initiated ourselves much better.
In this context, the keyword "resilience" keeps coming up. But what does it actually mean to be resilient?
Resilience translates to: psychological toughness. And you need that especially in these times. I like to describe it as the "callus of the soul": because those who have good resilience have a lower risk of becoming ill in such situations. What the immune system is for the body, resilience is for the soul.
To what extent does this differ from so-called "mental strength"?
Being mentally strong is one part of resilience. It is composed of various aspects in total.
About 30 percent of our individual resilience is genetically predisposed.
Before we get to all the individual aspects: can you train yourself to be and become more resilient?
The encouraging answer is: yes, you can train it. But you do have to train it to some extent. About 30 percent of our individual resilience is genetically predisposed. This means 70 percent is determined by learning experiences and training. The first few years of life are particularly crucial here. The experiences we collect during this life phase determine how resilient we are later on. Nevertheless, the rule is: it is completely normal to experience psychological stress in these times. Being affected by images is not a sign of illness. But if you notice that you can no longer get out of this state of mind and have potentially maneuvered yourself into a depressive mood over the last two years, you should address the issue.
People deal with all these negative events very differently. Which reactions are completely natural? And in which reactions must and should you really become active?
It depends on which areas of life a crisis spills over into. My patients come with physical symptoms and can no longer manage to focus on normal life. Everything revolves around fears, Covid, war. They find it difficult to concentrate on their everyday life. It is a decisive point whether you are mentally occupied with an externally controlled topic for 90 percent of the day—or whether you manage to address controllable topics after a few days. If the focus is 80 percent on normal life and 20 percent on the crisis, it is certainly not a pathological issue. And then, of course, it depends very much on the symptoms that develop as a result. With psychological stress, these are very diverse: from stress symptoms such as insomnia, inner restlessness, racing heart, severe headaches, a rebelling gastrointestinal system, to a lack of joy and energy. If all of this persists, it is probably necessary to seek help.
For resilience, it is crucial to feel bonded to a community.
How have fears changed over the past few years?
The specialty has enjoyed great demand anyway—but in the last few years, it has actually increased even further. Interestingly, the need cuts across all age groups. I had a time when it was mainly young students who reached out. For resilience, it is crucial to feel bonded to a community. And that is exactly what many have lost or, at the start of a new life phase, never got in the first place. This certainly also included elderly people living alone. There were too few offers for them. And they are precisely the ones doubly affected in the current crisis. They go from one retraumatization to the next. As for the nature of the fears: they have changed enormously over time. The fear of infection was actually only great at the beginning of Covid. Constantly greater were certainly the fears of life. Because security, control, and attachment are basic human needs.
Whether it is a partner, a best friend, or a relative: how do you deal with people who are struggling to cope with crises?
In my opinion, it always depends a little on how heavily burdened the person really is. You have to dare to approach them, ask questions, and share concerns. Either the person engages with it or blocks it off. If you want to do something together and strengthen resilience as a team, the topic of self-efficacy could be decisive: it is considered a very important factor for resilience because it allows us to regain control over areas of life. The question "What can I change?" is a guiding principle here. For example, it can be helpful to take on a "private project"—from a half-marathon to a cooking class to a new foreign language. Investing just ten minutes a day in this project can restore perspectives—a goal.
Finally: what can we do in a few important steps to still stay centered?
Resilience is, as I said, multi-faceted, and the aforementioned "private project" would therefore cover the area of self-efficacy. Another area is the acceptance of the unchangeable. Take the weather as an example: grabbing an umbrella and going for a walk despite the rain would be correspondingly resilience-strengthening. The third factor is optimism. This is about recognizing what is also good in everyday life, focusing on the "have" side of things.
Then there is the social network: it is important to feel connected to a group again in order to overcome crises. Together. And finally, it comes down to goals and visions and thus to what you take away from the crisis. Have you grown from a crisis? Can you appreciate everyday life more as a result? What made it worth overcoming this crisis? Germans are very problem-focused—and that naturally does something to their feelings. Loss of control and helplessness are easily explained by that. But if you manage to say, "Yes, not everything is good, but a lot is!", then a whole lot has already been gained!
Click here for concrete, practical tips from expert Dr. Haisch on how to strengthen your inner resilience.
Do you want to learn more about the topic of anxiety? Read about which medicinal plants and micronutrients can help.
Perhaps you are also interested in a podcast on the topic "How do I cope with crises," an interview with the Austrian emergency and military psychologist Bernhard Penz.
