How Adversity Impacts Overall Wellness
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What is Adversity?
Adversity in the context of psychology and counselling, refers to any experience a person encounters that they find difficult to cope with or that produces unwanted effects in later life.
What makes any given experience adverse is mainly down to individual subjective interpretation, although there are undoubtedly some experiences that most of us would recognise as being adverse.
For example, losing a parent as a youngster (an adverse childhood experience) is almost certainly going to be emotionally difficult as is the loss of a child for a parent.
However, even in cases like these, where we might reasonably expect everybody to respond in the same way (negatively), it would be over-generalising to state it as a fact.
Although we tend to think of adversity as always being negative, it is also a key component in the development of resilience.
The more you face difficult or challenging situations, the more likely you are to develop the skills needed to cope.
The ability to experience adversity that reults in a positive outcome is known as Post Traumatic Growth.
Different Types of Adversity
Adversity is subjective in nature, so what one person calls adverse, another might disregard completely.
In general terms, adversity can be broken down into different categories such as:
- Existential – having a life threatening experience.
- Economic – being unable to afford the basic cost of living.
- Social – being excluded by your social group.
- Cultural – being excluded by your culture.
- Psychological – experiencing abuse.
- Relational - the breakdown of close meaningful relationships.
All of these different types of adversity are KNOWN to be associated with mental health problems.
Adversity as a Cause of Mental Health Problems
We can say, with a fair degree of confidence, that most mental health problems are the result of experiencing adversity of one type or another.
When we have a negative experience it is understandable that we would seek to develop strategies designed to help us avoid similar experiences in the future.
However, this pattern of behaviour can also result in the use of strategies designed to cope with adversity long after the adverse situation has dissipated.
In these cases, we may end up using Maladaptive Coping Mechanisms.
Inequality & Its Effects on Mental Health
An inequality is an influential factor within a social or cultural structure that leads directly to disadvantages or limitations for those experiencing them.
As psychologists, we call these factors socio-cultural and socio-economic factors which means factors that are ‘bound-up’ inside the social, cultural and economic contexts in which we exist.
Socially Acquired Beliefs: Somebody Else’s Viewpoint
Socially acquired beliefs play a vital role in shaping our core beliefs, a fundamental concept within the therapeutic approach we adopt at Tranceform Psychology.
While experiential beliefs are derived from direct personal experiences, socially acquired beliefs are the core beliefs we assimilate from our social environment as we mature.
Experiential Beliefs: Convictions Based on Personal Experience
Experiential beliefs are one of the two sources of beliefs that go on to form our core beliefs alongside socially acquired beliefs.
They are beliefs that are formed as the result of our own, personal experiences.
If as a youngster, for example, you put your hand into an open fire….