RESILIENCE UNDER PRESSURE: JBER Resiliency Team available to make strong troops, families

  • Published
  • By David Bedard
  • JBER Public Affairs
JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaska --  The force of gravity combined with the 405 pounds of iron resident in the barbell and plates bearing down on Master Sgt. Shawn Wolfe sent an overwhelming message to his brain through a network of nerves in his quadriceps: stop now.

Bearing up under the weight, the 611th Air Support Squadron Airman looked up, gritted his teeth and ignored the pain in an effort to push the bar to the top of the rack.

"I don't think of it as weight," the Colquitt, Ga. native said. "I think of it as a movement, which I need to incorporate correctly, meaning once I go down, I know I can get back up."
The exercise is a fitting picture of Wolfe's efforts to maintain resiliency through his lifestyle because, despite the force of the bar pushing him down, he resolved in his mind to push back and to stand up straight.

According to Air Force Maj. David Wright, director of psychological health, 673d Air Base Wing, and Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson Resiliency Team officer in charge, resiliency can be defined in light of life's challenges.

"Resiliency is adapting well in the face of adversity, trauma or stress and bouncing back," the Fort Wainwright-born clinical psychologist explained. "Everybody has stress, anxieties and difficult situations presented to them, and resiliency is dealing with that."
Wright said he is reluctant to define people as resilient or non-resilient.

"Instead of a discrete label, it's more of a continuum," he said. "When it comes to resiliency, everyone has it and everyone demonstrates it to a certain degree at certain times. But it's one of those things that - no doubt - through our actions, behaviors and thoughts, can be enhanced, can be made more effective."

To that end, Wright describes resiliency as a holistic approach that factors in all dimensions of a person. The Air Force advocates Comprehensive Airman Fitness with four facets and the Army advocates Comprehensive Soldier Fitness with five facets.
Working with the different military services at JBER, Wright said he advocates the more detailed Total Force Fitness framework specified by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, which has eight dimensions: behavioral, environmental, medical/dental, nutritional, physical, psychological, social and spiritual.

Wright said discussions of resiliency often focus on preventing self-destructive behavior, but this narrow focus denies resiliency its full potential. He said the Department of Defense is promoting a wellness model in the realm of positive psychology with the TFF's eight dimensions in mind.

"It's not necessarily about fixing things that are broken, but enhancing things that are good," he said. "That's a completely different mindset. It's like going to your doctor and saying, 'How can you make me healthy?' We typically don't do that."
Wright said healthy troops and healthy family members don't fall victim to substance abuse, domestic violence or suicide.

"Why is that?" he asked. "Is it because they're not hurting or they don't experience negative emotions? No, it's because they have those things that are positive. They are able to deal with those situations."

Furthermore, Wright said negative behavior is the result of a series of choices. A strong resiliency is also the result of choices, he said, the right choices.

"Resiliency is supposed to reduce the number of suicides, reduce the number of people who hurt their children or their spouses, reduce the number of alcohol-related misconduct," he said. "But it's also going to make you a better Soldier, it's going to make you a better Airman."

Wright calls the Army's battle buddy and the Air Force's wingman systems collectively a core feature of resiliency. He said it's critical troops are mutually responsible for and accountable to one another.

"If you work for the DoD, one of the most beneficial things you can do is to recognize you have a responsibility greater than yourself," Wright said. "And the responsibility is to take care of the people around you."

Wright challenges leaders to explicitly identify battle buddies and wingmen to ensure no service member falls through the cracks. He said the troops need to be in a position to practically help one another based upon living areas, work schedules and other pertinent demographics.

"You can have some expectations that say, 'I expect you to help me when I need it, and I expect that you will ask me when you need help,'" Wright said of the battle buddy/wingman relationship. "The core feature of resiliency is having those connections."

In addition to having a specific battle buddy/wingman, Wright said it is also important to keep an eye out for people who are grappling with personal struggles.

"If you're walking in the (exchange), and you see someone's having a bad day and doesn't look well, I would argue that it's your responsibility to go up and say, "Hey, how are you doing, is there anything I can help you with?" he said. "That's the wingman culture. That's the battle buddy culture."

Though Wright said he doesn't expect military leaders to know everything about clinical psychology, he does expect them to understand their role in resiliency as well as what resources are available to their commands.

"Leadership needs to know what resiliency is," he said. "Not a talking point, not a buzzword - what is resiliency and what can I do is the question?"

Wright said it's also important to combat the stigma associated with seeking professional mental health services when they are needed. An important part of accomplishing this, he said, is breaking down the perceived barriers between mental and physical health.

"Mental health is the same as physical health," he said. "We all have brains. We all have anxiety. We dichotomize mental and physical health, and we should look at just health. That split is not beneficial.

"If I have a broken leg, I'm not going to hobble around, I'm going to go to the doctor," Wright continued. "But if we're depressed or agitated all the time, we don't often ask for help because of this stigma."

To help JBER-Richardson troops, Wright maintains an office in Building 600 that offers prevention and outreach services to units and individuals. Wright said he and his staff carry out what are called "walkabouts," when they visit units - making themselves available and familiar to troops who may not otherwise ask for help.

"If you see me and I'm a psychologist, and I see you regularly, it makes it easier to ask for help," he said. "It makes it easier to see where we're coming from."

Wright said there is no one-size-fits-all formula for resiliency. Every person needs to find what helps him to be especially resilient.

"Becoming resilient is a personal journey," he elaborated. "What makes you resilient may not work for me."

For Wolfe, a champion bodybuilder, he said his primary key to resiliency is fitness.
"I have to be fit in order to fight," he said. "If my body's not in tune with my mind, how can I be an example for my Airmen in terms of resilience?"

Deployed troops may have a tough time channeling their usual avenues of resiliency, Wright said, and they may need to get creative. An avid skier can take up crocheting, one of Wright's favorites, for the duration of the deployment.

On a more personal basis, deployed troops may be forced to forgo email and social networking in favor of adopting an old-school pen pal.

"I don't know when the last time was I wrote a letter to my grandma," Wright said of his last deployment. "But that was something that was helpful - staying connected and engaged."

JBER Resiliency, in partnership with the JBER Family Advocacy Program, offers classes and workshops in areas such as anger management, stress management, parenting, relationship skills and couples communications.

With all of the resources provided by JBER Resiliency and all of the activities available on the installation that can enhance resiliency, Wright said perhaps the most effective way to stay resilient is to help others.

"If you have purpose and meaning in your life, you're going to be resilient, because that purpose and meaning is probably going to stem from engagements and connections with people," he said. "The cheapest, easiest psychological trick is to do something for somebody else."

For more information about JBER Resiliency Team services or to enroll in a class, call 580-2181.