Dr Fatemeh Farhoodi, Assistant professor, psychiatry Department, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences

Resilience and social relations:

We all face to corona crisis; undoubtedly, we hear a lot about resilience nowadays. I want to explain what resilience is, and also explain about social relationships as one of its most important factors.

Think for a moment what does others mean when say "you have to be resilient"?  Surely, you may apply some words such as resistance and high flexibility. It is quite true; in these situations, a resilient person may be imagined like a basketball ball and the low-resilient person resembles a glass ball. When a resilient person face to problems wall, he may be twisted, distressed and depressed, but when the problem is finished, i.e., the crisis is finished, he will return to normal, so he is the same person again. However, when a low- resilient person encounters a wall of corona problem, he is broken down; he is not the same person after solving the problem. Now, he is changed to a failed and aggressive person, and he cannot return to his previous state.

There are so many factors involved with the resilience, of which one of the most important one is having good social relationships and having at least one person in the minds with this image: "This person wants the best for me, he will do his best to help me psychologically, in face of crisis in my life".

In order to develop resilience in such situations, the followings are recommended: first, trying to keep social relationships with others.  It is true that you are physically away, but phone conversations and virtual communication help not to be away psychologically, second, developing social support, either financially or any other cases. In these situations, you should support either your loved people or others in society and not to leave them alone.