Post Traumatic Growth
Trauma and grief followed me at every moment of my life until I finally found true joy.
I never thought of these events as abnormal until I started writing about them and reading them out loud to my writing group. Seeing the expressions of shock and awe from my five wonderful WOWs (Women of Words) made me realize that my experiences were not commonplace.
It’s almost too much! It’s unbelievable that you have lived through these experiences and come out at the other end happy and healthy, said teary-eyed Eveline.
That was an ah-ha moment for me! How did I end up living happily ever after with everything I had been through? And if I could be happy, perhaps I could help someone else go through difficult times by writing a book about my journey to wellness. Would such a book be worthwhile to someone else?
The idea kept nagging at me to go further but how to explain how I got here? Shortly after Eveline’s remark, and as I had done many times before, I did my research on Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. I read for days. I was surprised to find an interesting article on Post-Traumatic Growth (PTG), a new term coined by Richard Tedeschi, PhD, a professor of psychology at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, and his colleague, Lawrence Calhoun, PhD.
According to these two researchers, dozens of studies have shown that trauma survivors can change in profound ways. And it goes well beyond resilience, or bouncing back from adversity. With post-traumatic growth, a person who has faced difficult challenges doesn't just return to baseline, which is what happens with resilience. They change in fundamental, sometimes dramatic, ways.
Today, I realize that Post-Traumatic Growth saved me. There is no doubt in my mind. I knew I wanted to live a better life so I turned towards altruism, opened up to new experiences, and sought professional help. As a result, I became spiritually mature and embraced gratitude for my life which in turn made me a much happier person.
In writing this book, I self-evaluated whether I had achieved growth after the many traumas I had experienced based on the five areas of Tedeschi and Calhoun’s Post-Traumatic Growth Inventory. (It will be indicated at the end of the applicable sections.)
1: Appreciation of Life
2: Relationships with Others
3: New Possibilities in Life
4: Personal Strength
5: Spiritual Change
My greatest wish is that you find optimism and healing from the hard lessons of my life, and if you can take comfort or clarity from this book, it will have fulfilled its purpose.
Olive
