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Author Spotlight: Unveiling Mechanisms of Stress Resilience - Significant Findings, Advancements, and Future Research
Published on: December 15, 2023
Resilience in the aftermath of war trauma: a critical review and commentary
1Massachusetts Veterans Epidemiological Research and Information Center , VA Boston Healthcare System , Boston, MA , USA ; Departments of Psychology and Psychiatry , Boston University , Boston, MA , USA.
Abstract:
The resilience construct has received a great deal of attention as a result of the long wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The discourse about resilience, especially the promise of promoting it and mitigating risk for serious post-traumatic negative outcomes among service members and veterans, is hopeful and encouraging. Remarkably, most service members exposed to horrific war trauma are not incapacitated by the experience. Yet, resilience is elusive and fleeting for many veterans of war. In this paper, I address some of the complexities about resilience in the context of exposure to war stressors and I offer some assumptions and heuristics that stem from my involvement in the dialogue about resilience and from experiences helping prevent post-traumatic stress disorder among active-duty service members with military trauma. My goal is to use my observations and applied experiences as an instructive context to raise critical questions for the field about resilience in the face of traumatic life-events.
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