By Dennis S. Charney, STAT, June 15, 2021
One morning almost five years ago, a disgruntled former employee tried to kill me with a shotgun as I walked out of my local deli. The buckshot pellets from the blast pierced my right shoulder and chest; blood gushed from the wound. I learned later that the shot would have killed me had it landed a few inches to the left.
I had studied trauma victims for decades to understand resilience and find new treatments for mood and anxiety disorders like depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. Now I was the trauma victim. Lying in the intensive care unit of my own hospital, I struggled to find my own resilience. I would have to take my own medicine by applying what I call The Resilience Prescription to my personal trauma.
People who bounce back from traumatic events generally do so with an active approach to recovery, even creating a sense of mission that fuels a positive attitude. So I set a goal. I was scheduled to deliver a speech approximately two weeks after the shooting to the new medical students at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, where I am dean, at our White Coat Ceremony, a momentous event where students receive their white doctor coats. I pledged to myself that I would return to school and deliver the speech. That mission, and a determination to move forward with the support of my family and friends, enabled me to deliver the white coat address. I think it was the best speech I have ever given. Accomplishing that goal fueled and accelerated my recovery.
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