The Power of Protective Factors – Shield to Poor Mental Health
We can’t always prevent mental health challenges. However, we can prepare ourselves for how we can recover from those challenges. By using your protective factors, you can give yourself protection against whatever mental health challenge you may face.
What is a Protective Factor?
A protective factor is something that can help you to be more resilient when facing mental health challenges. By having either a few strong ones, or a multitude of them, you can be better equipped to handle whatever life throws at you.
What are some examples of Protective Factors?
- Social Support — friendships, space to talk about your problems, romantic relationships
- Coping Skills — managing emotions in a healthy way
- Physical Health — balance of rest and activity, healthy sleep hygiene, medical compliance
- A Sense of Purpose — being involved in something meaningful to you, living in line with your values
- Self-Esteem — knowing that you have value as a human, belief in your own resilience, acceptance of what you may feel is a personal flaw
- Healthy Thinking — not getting stuck on negative aspects, rationally considering your strengths and weaknesses
- Spirituality — religious belief, belief in a greater whole, connection with nature and earth
How Protective Factors work?
Having a strong foundation in any combination of these areas creates resilience. The ability to bounce back from adversity.
For example, my social support is my strongest protective factor. Combined with all the coping skills I learned in treatment, I was able to recover from my all consuming eating disorder. Without those protective factors, I would not be able to say today that I am in recovery.
I pulled heavily on my social supports throughout every part of my recovery journey. I reached out when I was struggling, checked in with my partner every day, made sure I wasn’t isolating in order to keep myself accountable. I also used my coping skills in each moment where I had to make a recovery oriented choice. Even when my eating disorder didn’t want me to. By using my protective factors, I was able to put my recovery behaviors before my beliefs and that made all the difference.
Some things in life are out of our control. But protective factors, like the ones listed, can be a great tool to utilize. Building up your protective factors and using them to manage your emotional distress will build up your resilience. When we build up our resilience, we decrease the likelihood of mental health challenges and increase our confidence in ourselves.