Post Traumatic Growth?

Brain cancer is...

...thinking about growth.

You may recall that much of Zachary's scholarly work focuses on combat-induced Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) throughout history.  Fortunately, true PTSD is a relatively rare phenomenon.

The other night I had the privilege of working with Zach to edit his latest work.  His work built an argument that Basil II (A Byzantine Emperor with the cheery nickname, "Basil the Bulgar Slayer") experienced PTSD after a horrific ambush and then rose above the trauma to function more effectively than before the trauma.  Zachary argued, using historical sources, that Basil experienced Post Traumatic Growth (PTG).

As I read Zach's paper, I had that striking sensation that his words were describing me and my experience following Darrell's diagnosis.  Darrell confirms that he feels the same way.  Here's what Zach's paper captured for us regarding our PTG experience:

• Personal development, including recognition both of new strengths and of one's limitations.
• Relationship growth, including value placed on family and friends and increased reliance on support networks (that's you!).
• Shifts in philosophy of life, including a reevaluation of what is important in life (Life 2.0).

As I read, and as Darrell and I talked, we were really struck by how true these experiences run for us.  Someone has a name for it!  We aren't alone!

In fact, growth after trauma of any sort is, fortunately, a much more common human experience than is PTSD.  I read of a study that said most people (90%) who experience trauma also experience at least one of the components, above, of growth.  (Side note:  Trauma is bad.  We would prefer Life 1.0 to Life 2.0, but we don't get to pick.  PTG suggests that from loss there can be gain.)

The hallmark of Post Traumatic Growth is not resilience--or returning to the prior level of functioning--it's creating a higher level of functioning, with the apparent benefit being an increased ability to face future stressors.

A difficulty in studying PTG is that it's very hard to measure actual growth.  To do so, one would need to measure current functioning, expose a person to trauma, and then measure functioning again. Not ethical.  Instead, researchers usually rely on self perceptions of growth. For instance, the psychologist of this post posits that holding the position "what doesn't kill us makes us stronger" is a coping mechanism we use to protect ourselves from the possibility that we have been harmed by trauma.

So you can see why we're thinking about growth.  Thinking and thinking.  We've decided that whether our growth is real or merely perceived, it's a better choice than the alternative.  Why would we want to live life any other way?



PS...Aren't you glad we didn't name this post "Sunflower Sunday?"