We watched The Lost City last night for our family movie night and I was struck with the Latin phrase that Lovelace (main character portrayed by Sandra Bullock) was using “Dulcius Ex Asperis” (“Sweeter After Difficulties”).
It reminded me of the time when I was trying to understand how people who went through or are going through difficult situations have managed to be resilient, positive, and seem to grow as an individual. I know firsthand about my own personal growth through adversities and the ways in which flipping the narratives seem easier for me.
When I was going through my first breast cancer experience, I started looking into this further and was pleasantly surprised when I learned about Post traumatic growth (PTG).
“Out of these hottest fire comes the strongest steel.” - Chinese Proverb
At first thought, one might find it confusing - growth and trauma put together in one phrase? Yet, delving into it deeper, I found it interesting to uncover trauma coping and recovery patterns.
What comes to your mind when you read or hear the word “trauma”?
What comes to your mind when you read or hear the word “growth”?
Trauma according to the American Psychological Association is
“an emotional response to a terrible event like an accident, rape or natural disaster. Immediately after the event, shock and denial are typical. Longer term reactions include unpredictable emotions, flashbacks, strained relationships and even physical symptoms like headaches or nausea. While these feelings are normal, some people have difficulty moving on with their lives. Psychologists can help these individuals find constructive ways of managing their emotions.”
Trauma is so prevalent in our lives. It’s steeped in our histories. It’s embedded in our DNA. The psychologist Dr. van der Kolk wrote in his book “The Body Keeps the Score”
Trauma victims cannot recover until they become familiar with and befriend the sensations in their bodies. Being frightened means that you live in a body that is always on guard. Angry people live in angry bodies.
One of my favourites Resmaa Menakem, anti-racist educator, somatic therapist, and author of My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies emphasise on:
“Trauma decontextualized in a person looks like personality. Trauma decontextualized in a family looks like family traits. Trauma decontextualized in people looks like culture.”
Trauma shows up more common than we think and is part of our lives whether we want to acknowledge it or not.
Did you know that 3/4 of adults over age 65 have been exposed to at least one traumatic event during their lifetime, and depending on the definition of traumatic event, the figure may be even higher (Mills et.al. 2011)?
According to the Global Collaboration on Traumatic Stress “approximately 70% of the world’s population have been exposed to a traumatic life event, and the resulting mental health problems represent a major challenge to public mental health services, globally.”
These traumatic events according to the Brief Trauma Questionnaire (BTQ)- a 10-item self-report questionnaire derived from the Brief Trauma Interview (BTI; Schnurr, et al., 1995) are:
(1) combat,
(2) serious car accident,
(3) major natural or technological disaster,
(4) life-threatening illness,
(5) physical punishment as child,
(6) physical assault,
(7) unwanted sexual contact,
(8) other situation in which respondent was seriously injured or feared being seriously injured or killed,
(9) violent death of close friend or family member, and
(10) witnessing a situation in which someone was seriously injured or killed or in which respondent feared someone might be seriously injured or killed
According to Elyssa Barbash Ph.D., we also experience small ‘t’ traumas in our lives.
These are events that “exceed our capacity to cope and cause a disruption in emotional functioning. These distressing events are not inherently life or bodily-integrity threatening, but perhaps better described as ego-threatening due to the individual left feeling notable helplessness.”
Some examples that Alyssa Barbash mentioned are
Interpersonal conflict
Abrupt or extended relocation
Legal trouble
Financial worries or difficulty
Small ‘t’ traumas tend to be overlooked by the individual who has experienced the difficulty. This is sometimes due to the tendency to rationalize the experience as common and therefore cognitively shame oneself for any reaction that could be construed as an over-reaction or being “dramatic.” This reaction is a form of avoidance, albeit a much less pronounced form. Other times, the individual does not recognize just how disturbed they are by the event or situation. Perhaps surprisingly, sometimes these events are also overlooked or dismissed by a therapist. This usually does not happen due to the therapist lacking empathy, but rather it occurs due to a lack of understanding about the importance of these experiences for a person’s functioning. -Elyssa Barbash Ph.D.
Whether it be big T or small t traumas, we experience trauma in different ways. American physiologist, Walter Cannon, was the one to coin the term FIGHT-FLIGHT after realizing that an unconscious and automatic series of fast-acting reactions occurred inside the body to help assemble resources the body needs to manage threatening circumstances.
In the years since his research, physiologists and psychologists have developed and refined Cannon's work, coming to a better understanding of how people react to threats.
Thus defining what is now called fight, flight, freeze, and fawn:
Fight: facing any perceived threat aggressively.
Flight: running away from the danger.
Freeze: unable to move or act against a threat.
Fawn: immediately acting to try to please to avoid any conflict.
Which one do you notice for yourself as a response?
Which one do you notice within your family?
What I learned and realized for myself was that these responses were also formed from the family and culture that I am part of. Yes, these are unconscious responses from my nervous system- yet how it becomes wired and primed for has been passed on through generations.
A major part of the problem with trauma is that it affects not just the body, it also affects the mind. Our brain is wired to detect fear, threats, and to focus on safety. Intrusive rumination refers to a cognitive process in which individuals focus their attention on negative perception of traumatic events.
To keep our ancestors alive, Mother Nature evolved a brain that tends to make three mistakes: overestimating threats, underestimating opportunities, and underestimating resources (for dealing with threats and fulfilling opportunities). This is a great way to pass on gene copies but a lousy way to promote quality of life. - Rick Hanson, Ph.D.
The ecosystem that promotes trauma is complex. The various conditions of adverse childhood experiences, adverse community experiences, atrocious cultural and historical experiences as well as adverse climate experiences, all play significant parts in ongoing big T and small t traumatic experiences.
YET 30-70% of individuals who experience trauma also report positive change and growth (Joseph and Butler, 2010).
Post Traumatic Growth coined by Richard tedeschi and Lawrence Calhoun captures the positive psychological change that is experienced as a result of the struggle with highly challenging life circumstances. Defined as the “experience of individuals whose development, at least in some areas has surpassed what was present before the struggle with crises occurred. The individual has not only survived, but has experienced changes that are viewed as important, and that go beyond the status quo” (Tedeschi and Calhoun, 2004).
This reminds me so much of the Japanese practice of Kintsugi. It is the centuries-old Japanese art of fixing broken pottery with a special lacquer dusted with powdered gold, silver, or platinum. Beautiful seams of gold glint in the cracks of ceramic ware, giving a unique appearance to the piece.
The field of psychological trauma is changing as researchers recognise that adversity does not always lead to a damaged and dysfunctional life. When adversity strikes, we often feel that at least some part of our views of the world, sense of being, or our relationships has been smashed. There are people who try to put their lives back together exactly as they were only to realise that the experiences have kept them feel fractured and vulnerable. But there are those who accept the breakage and build themselves anew, thus becoming more resilient and open to new ways of living.
The following key characteristics of PTG that causes psychological change:
PTG comes with multidimensional changes in the belief system, life goals, and self-identity.
It is constructive and mindful as it helps us stay grounded and focus on what is happening now rather than dwelling in the past.
It is value-oriented as it changes the way we look at life altogether.
It is goal-oriented as it helps us stay focused on our aims and higher goals
It calls for self-improvement as we become regardful and start valuing what we have.
It changes our reasoning and judgmental qualities.
PTG is tied in with self-dependence and self-healing. The deep understanding that one derives during the post-traumatic transformation makes him self-reliant and solution-focused.
PTG is characterized by positive change in which the individual is more psychologically fit after the trauma than before the trauma. Change is thought to occur in five domains:
relating to others- involves the strengthening of existing relationships and the addition of new and close relationships
new possibilities- the realization that many different outcomes in life are possible
personal strength- is the feeling and knowledge that an individual can tackle challenging tasks
spiritual change- is a stronger connection with and deeper respect for a higher power or increased thoughtfulness about existence.
appreciation of life - involves cherishing each moment and feeling lucky to be alive
You can check out the PTG inventory here.
PTG is not about ignoring the pain, fear or shock of what's happened to you, and carrying on regardless. It also doesn't remove distress, so people experience both negative and positive emotions as they grow. For me, understanding about PTG helps to re-focus my attention and flip the narratives I have around the adversities in life that I have experienced or will be experiencing. Knowing more about PTG helps me to:
Move from dysregulated to regulated states
Move from intrusive to intentional thoughts
Tend to shame through self-compassion
Address trauma through “thrive”
taking stock
harvesting hope
re-authoring
identifying change
valuing change
expressing change in action
surface strengths more than the sufferings
All of these help me to move away from the pathogenic (problem focused) to a more salutogenic perspective. Salutogenesis translates to “the origins of health”, from the Latin 'Salus' (Health), and the Greek 'Genesis' (origin or beginning). The term was first coined in 1979 by the medical sociologist Aaron Antonovsky in his book Health, Stress and Coping.
A 'salutogenic' approach is one that focuses on factors that support health and wellbeing, beyond a more traditional, 'pathogenic' focus on risk and problems.
When thinking about the line "Dulcius Ex Asperis", I am reminded of how much I have experienced growth through adversities, and how indeed it is “sweeter through difficulty”. Now if only we set the stage where there are less adversities for people and promote more healing-centered ecosystems, how sweeter the world will be then!
“ In some ways suffering ceases to be suffering at the moment it finds a meaning.”
-Viktor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning
Other resources to check out:
Post Traumatic Growth Inventory http://www.cscd.osaka-u.ac.jp/user/rosaldo/VIII-B_Post-Traumatic-Growth-Inventory.pdf
Radical Acceptance Worksheet https://positivepsychology.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Radical-Acceptance-Worksheet.pdf
Conquering Avoidant Tendencies https://positivepsychology.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Conquering-Avoidant-Tendencies.pdf
Psychological Well-Being – Post-Traumatic Change Questionnaire (PWB-PTCQ) https://www.nottinghamshire.gov.uk/media/1533200/psychologicalwellbeing.pdf
TED Talk by Harry Brown
- Posttraumatic Growth Workbook: A collection of evidence- backed exercises and techniques, this PTG workbook offers an answer to the application of PTG in real life.
Transformation after Trauma by Richard Tedechi
P.S. I am curious how this post on post traumatic growth is stirring you. What are your thoughts about PTG? Feel free to comment, or reach out. I would love to hear from you!
Hiraya manawari,
Lana