Resilience and depression: Perspectives from primary care

Abstract

Resilience refers to the capacity for successful adaptation or change in the face of adversity. This concept has rarely been applied to the study of distress and depression. We propose two key elements of resilience - ordinary magic and personal medicine - which enable people to survive and flourish despite current experience of emotional distress. We investigate the extent to which these elements are considered important by a sample of 100 people, drawn from a longitudinal study of the management of depression in primary care in Victoria, Australia. We also assess how respondents rate personal resilience in comparison with help received from professional sources. Our data are obtained from ..