Article: The idea that many people grow following trauma may be a myth

[Arnie Pye]

Subtitle: Studies of posttraumatic growth are fundamentally flawed, researchers say

Link: https://www.sciencenews.org/article/trauma-ptsd-growth-myth-cultural-narrative-mental-health

I think many societal beliefs about trauma, illness, and tragedy are sadistic. Think of people who've been raped, attacked, lost a child, lost a spouse, partner or significant other, been very ill, suffered excruciating pain, lost all their belongings in a fire, etc...

Society expects sufferers of these events to show resilience, bravery, stoicism, they must suffer silently (so as not to annoy others), they must not complain or cry (in public or in front of a doctor). Someone who has cancer or some other life-ending or life-altering disease is expected to get on with their lives, and look on the bright side for as long as possible.

Anyone who breaks these "rules" and expectations is looked down upon, is letting the side down, and is sometimes blamed for their own suffering.

Having said all that, researchers have finally researched this and found out it is a myth that traumatised people benefit from this sadism. At long last. Hallelujah!

“What does not kill me, makes me stronger,” 19th century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche famously wrote. Variations of that aphorism abound in literary, spiritual and, more recently, psychological texts.

That psychological research suggests that at least half of survivors not only recover from traumatic experiences but also go on to develop more appreciation for life, stronger relationships and emotional strength — a phenomenon researchers call “posttraumatic growth.”

But in a series of talks presented in May in Chicago at the Association for Psychological Science conference, some researchers called findings of posttraumatic growth “largely illusory.” Growth studies suffer from serious methodological flaws, these researchers say. That includes a reliance on surveys that require people to assess their personal growth over time, a task that most people struggle with.

That yearning for positive outcomes can create “toxic cultural narratives,” says personality psychologist Eranda Jayawickreme of Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C. Referring to parents who lost a child in the Uvalde mass shooting, he says: “There is something grotesque about this expectation that people could come back from something like this.”

A half-century ago, psychologists largely treated a person’s difficulty in rebounding from traumatic events as a personal failing.

The article continues...

I can't see that this research is going to make much difference to society's handling of trauma that is obvious in sufferers. In my experience un-traumatised, physically healthy people get embarrassed by people crying, being depressed, being in pain, being ill. It's almost as if people think such effects of trauma might be catching. And having been taught that showing the effects of trauma is a weakness I don't think it will change in my lifetime.

I might have misinterpreted this article. I've conflated recovering from trauma with "experiencing growth after trauma", and I may have got that wrong.

 

[Peter T]

I am sceptical of ‘positive learning experiences’ and would happily dispense with the associated trauma.

 

[Sean]

“What does not kill me, makes me stronger,”

No, it just didn't kill you.

 

[BrightCandle]

Wounds leave scars, in my experience mentally too. Not one of the horrific events in my life has done anything but leave bad memories my brain refuses to forget. IRL I'll play the person I mean to be stoic and in control but I just want to cry most of the time.