Living traumatic experiences does not always strengthen us

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esperienze traumatiche

There is a widespread myth that we have all heard at times, especially when we are going through a difficult time: what does not kill you, strengthens you. Without a doubt the Resilience it is built on the pillars of difficult experiences, those that force us to develop a strength that we thought we did not have or push us beyond the limits.

But the resilience that comes from difficult situations is one thing, another is the psychological impact that traumatic events can have. In fact, a new study has revealed that traumatic experiences don't always make us stronger. Sometimes the opposite happens.

What doesn't kill you doesn't always strengthen you

A study conducted at the University of Texas analyzed data from more than 1.200 climate change survivors over two decades. He discovered that people's mental faculties diminish after suffering natural disasters and extreme weather events that profoundly alter their lives.

These psychologists followed up with people who experienced hurricanes, floods, droughts, extreme winters, and industrial emergencies in the Houston area between 2000 and 2020. They concluded that the old adage "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger" does not that is quite correct. Indeed, mental health suffers even more from the cumulative impact of traumatic events. In these cases, mental well-being drops dramatically.

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A similar study conducted at the Brown University came to the same conclusion. After analyzing people's traumatic experiences before and after experiencing the sixth most powerful earthquake recorded in Chile, the researchers found that those who had experienced previous traumatic events, such as the loss of a loved one, were more likely to develop health problems. mental health.

In most cases, traumatic situations create a feeling of learned helplessness which makes people more vulnerable to the following negative event. Getting over a traumatic event isn't a guarantee that something like this won't happen again. If these stressful situations recur frequently and we fail to absorb them or overcome their impact, they are very likely to weaken our mental health. Repeated traumas add up and undermine our emotional balance.

In summary, the highly stressful situations of the past, experienced individually or collectively, can make us more vulnerable to trauma and increase the chances of developing a mental disorder, such as depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress or addiction.

How to protect ourselves from the impact of traumatic events?

Above all, it is important to differentiate manageable stressful situations from traumatic experiences that we cannot manage. Manageable stressors are generally less severe, which allows us to implement different coping strategies to manage the situation, without exceeding our abilities. These situations can have enormous growth potential because they force us to get out of the comfort zone and at the same time they do not generate a state of extreme anguish.

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On the other hand, traumatic situations that we cannot manage are usually of a more extreme nature, such as rape, war or natural disasters. These events not only take us by surprise, but can even overwhelm our coping capacity, generating a high level of emotional stress that threatens our mental health and also staggers our worldview and belief system. These types of traumatic events have greater destructive power, we will need more time to recover and may need psychological help.

Either way, it's important to remember that when things go wrong, we tend to believe that the painful experience will somehow inspire resilience and help us be better or stronger. During the first year of the pandemic, for example, we thought that "we would come out strengthened", but that was not the case.

We must be aware that it is not the traumatic situations that change and strengthen us, but the way we deal with them. Suffering is not in itself some kind of enlightenment. If we want our pain to have a meaning, that it can be uplifting in some way, we must make sure we find the meaning and not resign ourselves to suffering passively waiting for a mystical revelation.

We cannot escape some traumatic experiences and many times we cannot protect ourselves from emotional trauma, but we can always try to find meaning in them to include them in our life narrative and prevent them from harming our mental health.

Sources:

Sansom, GT et. Al. (2022) Compounding impacts of hazard exposures on mental health in Houston, TX. natural hazards; 111: 2809-2818.

Fernandez, CA et. Al. (2020) Assessing the relationship between psychosocial stressors and psychiatric resilience among Chilean disaster survivors. BJ Psych; 217 (5).


Admission Living traumatic experiences does not always strengthen us was published first in Corner of Psychology.

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