Post-Traumatic Stress’s Surprisingly Positive Flip Side

[caryn]

Patterns began to emerge in a follow-up study of more than 600 trauma survivors. People reported positive change in five areas: they had a renewed appreciation for life; they found new possibilities for themselves; they felt more personal strength; their relationships improved; and they felt spiritually more satisfied. Tedeschi developed an inventory to track and measure the phenomenon, and in 1995, he and Calhoun coined the term “post-traumatic growth.” Experiencing growth in the wake of trauma, Tedeschi asserts, is far more common than P.T.S.D. and can even coexist with it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/25/magaz ... wanted=all

PTSD is common enough in preeclamptics; perhaps this is, too.

[aajatwins]

Very nice!
it sounds trite, but what doesn't kill us really can make us stronger.

[kerisue]

for myself I might have agreed with that, had i gone through the trauma and gotten to keep my baby at the end.

[caryn]

Yes, I'd like to see it broken out by "type of trauma" or something; if these are active duty military who lost friends is their post-trauma course different from those who experienced severe injury with lasting physical consequences? How is the aftershock different in a PE trauma patient with a dead child but only long-term sequela different from a patient with a living child and a stroke?

But, in a way all studies open more questions like this. If they are good studies.