Mount Sinai has released the fifth episode of the monthly podcast series Road To Resilience, which details how playing to your strengths and altruism can help you overcome significant obstacles in life and achieve great success.
In this podcast, Angela Diaz, MD, PhD, MPH, explains how she used these resilience factors to move forward after experiencing major trauma growing up. Dr. Diaz is the Jean C. and James W. Crystal Professor in Adolescent Health; Professor of Pediatrics, and Environmental Medicine and Public Health, at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai; and Director of the Mount Sinai Adolescent Health Center.
“People always say, ‘You’re so resilient, how did you make it?’ I had such a challenging life, but because of my temperament, my optimism, and the many wonderful people I met along the way, I was able to overcome this,” explained Dr. Diaz. “When you’re traumatized, there’s always a scar. But you can learn how to cope and learn to move forward.”
In the episode, “A Resilient Journey from Trauma to Success,” Dr. Diaz details her difficult past, which includes growing up in extreme poverty, being separated from her family, going through a deep depression, and dropping out of high school.
Despite her upbringing and challenges, Dr. Diaz had the goal of becoming a doctor at a young age and never lost sight of that vision. She recognized her strength in math and physics.
Even after quitting school at the age of 15, she knew she needed help to get back on the right track. She went to the Mount Sinai Adolescent Health Center, which provided her with the necessary counseling to move forward. Dr. Diaz went on to graduate on time, attended The City College of New York and then pursued her medical education at Columbia, Harvard, and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
Dr. Diaz has also used altruism to build resilience in herself and thousands of at-risk teens. She now runs the renowned Adolescent Health Center, the same unique program that transformed her life.
“This is not like work for me, this is a calling. To be able to work in the same place that helped me when I was a teenager, and then for me to be able to do the same thing for other young people, is truly a gift,” Dr. Diaz says. “Every time I talk to a young person—they may be suicidal or feel bad about themselves—we sit down with them and try to help them cope and stay in school. Just seeing how that young person evolves is so rewarding. And it doesn’t just help them become more resilient. Every day I get more resilient from this work and giving back to them.”
The podcast, created by the Mount Sinai Health System, is based on the well-received book Resilience: The Science of Mastering Life’s Greatest Challenges, co-authored by Dennis S. Charney, MD, Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Dean of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and Steven Southwick, MD, Professor of Psychiatry at Yale University. Their research in resilience spans 25 years, and their book has been so well received it is now in its second edition.
In the book they present 10 resilience factors to help anyone become stronger when facing life’s greatest challenges, and they explain how these can be learned at any stage of life. Each podcast episode focuses on different factors including facing your fears and having realistic optimism, a moral compass, and a support system, along with physical and brain fitness. The monthly series features insight from Mount Sinai experts who explain the science behind resilience while sharing their personal stories and experiences.
Road to Resilience is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play (link works best in Chrome). New episodes of the series are released on the last Wednesday of each month. You can find more information on the Icahn School of Medicine website or on the Road to Resilience website.