[Peace-discuss] Joan Didion, 1934-2021

[kmedina67]

Hi Ron,I am not sure i see why this (potential) conversation starter was sent to peace-discuss, but, sure, i will push the topic toward anti-war topics.*Trauma -- like witnessing war, witnessing people dying, experiencing physical violence themselves (including sexual assault)*Tools -- [i will leave this blank so that perhaps we can together build a list of tools that help us be resilient]*Support -- social support, access to information, access to mental health care, ...I have not read deeply on the topic of recovery. But i have observed a  significant number of people longitudinally and have observed that their ability to "adapt" is not a fixed ability. For instance, a teenager has very few tools in their toolbox at the point in their life that they are growing away from their parents. If something life-changing happens during these years, their ability to "adapt" or recover is significantly slowed. Unless they have infrastructure (support people other than their parents, ready access to information, and professional help) in their lives that can help them find and develop the tools, they are very likely to latch on to anything else that comes their way. The life preservers that they latch on to can often take them farther away from long-term skill building. Most of the people we send off to war are under the age of 25. "The rational part of a teen’s brain isn’t fully developed and won’t be until age 25 or so." * "recent research has found that adult and teen brains work differently. Adults think with the prefrontal cortex, the brain’s rational part. This is the part of the brain that responds to situations with good judgment and an awareness of long-term consequences. Teens process information with the amygdala. This is the emotional part."I maintain that war affects those who witness it in ways that may distract their abilities to develop life skills and can completely disable their ability to function in social situations (like living, working, and relating with other humans).Tangent: If a teen trusts you with a problem they are experiencing,"Remind [the person] that they ARE resilient and competent. Because they’re so focused in the moment, teens have trouble seeing that they can play a part in changing bad situations. It can help to remind them of times in the past that they thought would be devastating but turned out for the best." References quoted:* "Understanding the Teen Brain"Article in the Health Encyclopedia, University of Rochester Medical Centerhttps://www.urmc.rochester.edu/encyclopedia/content.aspx?ContentTypeID=1&ContentID=3051- Karen Medina"The really great make you feel that you, too, can become great" - Mark Twain
-------- Original message --------From: "Szoke, Ron via Peace-discuss" <peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net> Date: 12/26/21  23:02  (GMT-06:00) To: peace-discuss at anti-war.net, peace-discuss <peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net> Cc: Rebecca Privin <rebecca.privin28 at att.net>, Bill Strutz <bill.strutz at gmail.com> Subject: [Peace-discuss] Joan Didion, 1934-2021 Joan Didion (Dec. 5, 1934—Dec. 23, 2021)I open another issue of _Daedalus_, this one devoted to the concept of “happiness.”  One piece on happiness, the joint work of Robert Biswas-Diener of the University of Oregon and Ed Diener and Maya Tamir of the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, noted that although “research has shown that people can adapt to a wide range of good and bad life events in less than two months,” there remained “some events to which people are slow or unable to adapt completely.”  Unemployment was one such event.  “We also find,”  the authors added, “that it takes the average widow many years after her spouse’s death to regain her former level of life satisfaction.”        Was I “the average widow”?  What in fact would have been my “former level of life satisfaction”?  =>  _The Year of Magical Thinking_ (Knopf, 2005, pages 169-170)   _______________________________________________Peace-discuss mailing listPeace-discuss at lists.chambana.nethttps://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace-discuss
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