Let’s Talk More About Post-Traumatic Growth
Trauma is common and pervasive nationwide. Research shows that more than two-thirds of people reported at least one traumatic event before the age of sixteen. Trauma can result from one terrible event (such as the death of a loved one, a natural disaster, an accident), or from a series of continued terrible events (abuse, sexual violation, emotional or physical neglect, witnessing or experiencing domestic violence, war, parental loss, serious illness, etc.)
The prevailing myth is that people who experience trauma will develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) because of the belief that trauma changes a person’s brain. While this may be true of some people, the reality is that diagnoses of PTSD are actually rare. Many research studies report that most people who experience a traumatic event do not develop PTSD. In fact, the amount of people in the United States with the actual PTSD diagnosis in any given year is approximately 13 million adults (approximately 5%.) Globally, approximately 5.6% of people develop PTSD despite almost 70% of human beings reporting at least one traumatic event during their lifetime. Additionally, due to the types of traumatic events that women are more likely to encounter (such as domestic violence and sexual assault), women are more likely than men to develop PTSD at one point in their lives (8% of women develop PTSD compared to 4% of men). And it is true that military veterans are more likely to develop PTSD compared to civilians (especially veterans who have been deployed).
Traumatic events significantly impact most people. However, that impact is not necessarily in the form of PTSD. The reason is partly because of the nature of trauma.
The first point to understand about trauma is that it is not an event or an incident. Trauma is the emotional, mental, and/or physiological response to a horrible event. Trauma is the response to the experience, and not the experience itself. The second point to understand about trauma is that it is possible (and highly likely) that people will have different responses to the exact same terrible event. Since trauma is our response to a horrible event, the degree to which we experience trauma responses will vary.
We are in a new era of human society in which we are freer to communicate about the things that once seemed too personal and taboo. So it’s a good thing that mental health and trauma are open discussions now. We are learning more about how trauma works, we are learning new vocabulary, and we are learning how to have deeper conversations about mental health. However, our national discourse on trauma seems to revolve informally around triggers and PTSD.
We need to talk more about post-traumatic growth.
Over the last couple hundred years, the field of psychology focused on pathologies and disorders. However, in the 1990s, the medical model of diagnosing “what is wrong with the patient” began to give way to discussions on “what is right with the client”. Strengths-based approaches and the innovation of positive psychology led to research on post-traumatic growth (PTG). University of North Carolina researchers Richard Tedeschi and Lawrence Calhoun first came up with the term “post-traumatic growth,” and since then, several researchers used Tedeschi and Calhoun’s concepts as a springboard into a deeper study in growth and resilience.
Basically, Tedeschi and Calhoun defined post-traumatic growth as “positive psychological changes experienced as a result of the struggle with trauma or highly challenging situations”. Some people who go through horrible or dangerous events experience the pain of the events, and then they use the experiences to gain meaning, insight, and personal growth. Many people who report signs of PTG do not just return to an old sense of normalcy, but they somehow create a new and healthier normal. One meta-analysis published in early 2019 found that approximately 53% of people who experienced some type of horrific event (war veterans, firefighters, chronically ill patients) exhibited signs of medium-to-high post-traumatic growth.
As a society, we definitely should talk more about post-traumatic growth. But we must be extremely careful. Our social media apps reward meme-sized bits of information. Short-form platforms like X, Instagram, and TikTok have algorithms that reward watered down material that is easily clickable and shareable. This is why it is important to consider HOW we talk about PTG.
We need to talk comprehensively about PTG so that we do not inadvertently harm survivors by placing oppressive expectations to be even stronger than they were before their traumatic experiences. Some survivors who struggle with trauma may continue to struggle and then improve and then struggle some more and then improve some more. Everyone’s healing journey is unique to them.
Furthermore, when we minimize our information on PTG, we run the risk of inadvertently minimizing someone else’s experiences. For example, many survivors and relatives who lost family and friends to the violence of school shootings may report growing stronger and more resilient after their traumatic experience, but I guarantee they would forgo all of that spiritual growth and resilience just to avoid that experience in the first place and have all of their friends or loved ones back unharmed.
As BBC news correspondent and science writer David Robson stated, “we are often told about people’s capacity to thrive after trauma–but these claims may put unnecessary pressure on survivors…We need to remember each individual’s experience is going to be very different and must be judged on its own terms. The priority should be providing whatever support they personally need to come to terms with their trauma, whether they are reporting stress or growth–or both at the same time–without imposing a narrative on their recovery.”
For more information on trauma and healing please visit BrownAndGray.com .
