Superpower #1 Resiliency

A few weeks ago, I wrote a blog post that outlined all of the "superpowers" I obtained after experiencing hard times. Today, I would like to focus on one of those superpowers, resilience. I think everyone has heard of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but have you heard of post-traumatic growth (PTG)? I heard about it during grad school, and my ears immediately perked up. I did not know that what I experienced, that I thought was singular and unique, was a studied phenomenon. Post-traumatic growth is a theory that explains the transformation that sometimes takes place following a trauma. Psychologists Richard Tedeschi, PhD and Lawrence Calhoun, PhD developed PTG in the mid-1990s. The idea is that people who endure psychological struggle following adversity can often see positive growth afterward.

I became more resilient as a direct result of the pain I endured. This illustrates PTG. PTG occurs when someone has difficulty bouncing back after a traumatic event. The event challenges their core beliefs, they may even endure a psychological struggle (like post-traumatic stress disorder), and then ultimately find a sense of personal growth. It is not an easy process. Trauma has a way of rocking you to your core. It forces you to assess your core beliefs, and in many times, it forces you to challenge them, but through that struggle, some find tremendous growth. I know I did. I am not the same person I was six years ago.  

I view the world very differently. I describe it as having blinders up my whole life, and when trauma hit, suddenly the blinders disappeared. I realized that my view of the world was extremely limited. I wanted to know more about this new view of the world, and I started working on myself to help explore it. This is probably the biggest reason, I decided to do the work required to become a therapist. It is very difficult to see the world this clearly, and not want to do your part to improve it.  While I may not know the source of someone's their pain, I recognize it, and I meet them with kindness and grace. I began to see that bad things happen to good people all the time. Prior to my family's personal trauma, I had not been closely affected by a traumatic event. I would read about sad stories and shake my head feeling pity for those affected. Once my family became the sad story in the paper, I realized that feeling sorry for someone was the absolute worst thing you could do. As my vision of the world changed, so did I. I responded to people differently, I understood things on a different level, and I felt a deeper connection to those around me. 

PTG can be illustrated in five areas:

1. Appreciation of life
   
2. Relationships with others
   
3. New possibilities in life
   
4. Personal strength
   
5. Spiritual change
   

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Personally, I have seen all five areas grow and change. While I am still not at a place in my life to say that the trauma was worth the growth, I can recognize the beauty that came from broken places. Who knows, maybe one day I will say it was worth it, but it is certainly a work in progress. I would encourage everyone who has experienced a trauma to be open to the possibility that beauty may find a way to color your trauma in a very unexpected way.