[Mb-civic] The paradox of post-traumatic growth - Richard Tedeschi, Lawrence Calhoun - Boston Globe Op-Ed

[William Swiggard]

  The paradox of post-traumatic growth

By Richard G. Tedeschi and Lawrence G. Calhoun  |  March 20, 2006  |  
The Boston Globe

DO YOU believe that bad things happen to other people and that by 
following the rules and living right you will avoid suffering? Do you 
believe that your life is predictable and stable? Many of us hold these 
beliefs, and when crises occur in our lives, these assumptions about 
life are challenged. Such crises and the questioning that arises from 
them may bring unexpected changes, including hard-won wisdom.

What is the worst thing that ever happened to you? What is the best 
thing? For some people, these are the same. That is what we learned in 
our studies of people who are survivors of traumatic events. Consider Jerry.

Jerry was living the life that many young people aspire to, playing in a 
successful rock band. But one night the bus carrying the band crashed. 
When Jerry woke up in a hospital, he learned that he would never walk 
again. His career as a traveling musician was pretty much over, too.

When we talked to him a few years later, while he sat in his wheelchair, 
he said the accident was the best thing that had ever happened to him. 
Perhaps he was in denial, or perhaps he was employing an unconscious 
defense mechanism. But we think Jerry was describing the experience of 
what we call posttraumatic growth. Jerry valued the disabling accident 
because it steered him in a new, fulfilling direction that he was 
convinced he wouldn't have found otherwise. He returned to college, 
completed graduate school, and became a rehabilitation counselor, 
responsible for a program that helps people with accessibility problems 
at home and at work. Although most people who endure trauma do not claim 
that the trauma was a good thing, many have found their suffering leads 
to valued changes.

Two events have presented major challenges to many people this year 
--the war in Iraq and Hurricane Katrina. We are rightly concerned about 
the negative effects of these events on those who are in the midst of 
them, those who have now left them behind, those of us who have known 
people who have survived them, and those of us who have only watched 
from afar. What has become evident in recent years, however, is that in 
the midst of suffering and loss there is survival and resilience. Beyond 
that, there can be something more -- transformation and growth.

We have discovered that survivors of a variety of crises, including 
life-threatening illness, accidents, crime, combat, and natural 
disaster, can experience, along with the pain and distress, some 
combination of five kinds of positive transformations -- a greater sense 
of personal strength, closer relationships with others, a greater 
appreciation of life, a new philosophy of life, including a more 
meaningful spiritual life, and new opportunities and life paths. In the 
struggle to make sense out of what they have gone through, people can 
develop new ways of looking at life that allow them to live lives that 
are fuller, wiser, and more purposeful.

Ever since the Vietnam War, we have understood that some returning 
veterans, especially those who have seen extended and horrible combat, 
are haunted by post-traumatic symptoms and guilt.

But there seems to be a popular idea that all combat veterans will 
inevitably have trauma symptoms. The truth is that most American 
veterans returning home from war go on to lead good lives without 
psychiatric difficulties.

Moreover, some veterans, including those from Iraq, see their war 
experience as having benefited them, even transformed them in highly 
positive ways. They may be wounded, they may have regrets, and they may 
still have difficult challenges to face. But they have also changed 
their personal philosophies and may now see themselves as stronger, 
wiser, and more closely connected to other humans.

Because of their difficult experiences, these soldiers or survivors of 
other severe challenges may be a future source of wisdom about how to 
live wisely and how to create societies that better allow us to do that. 
They, like so many of us who have experienced suffering and loss, may 
also see the wisdom in the paraphrase of an old American Protestant 
hymn: Shun not the struggle; it is a gift.

Richard G. Tedeschi and Lawrence G. Calhoun are professors of psychology 
at The University of North Carolina at Charlotte and co-editors of the 
soon to be published ''Handbook of Posttraumatic Growth: Research and 
Practice."

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2006/03/20/the_paradox_of_post_traumatic_growth/
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