Post Traumatic Growth or PTG is a condition when positive psychological changes happen after a very traumatic experience.
Most often we hear about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD, which is a condition where people suffer from immense stress after a traumatic incident. A portion of people suffer from PTSD and another portion experience PTG.
PTSD happens when you bounce back and PTG happens when you bounce forward.
What exactly is Post-traumatic growth?
Normally we might think that after trauma, people tend to be miserable, which is somewhat true but not fully accurate. People may also experience PTG or Post-traumatic growth where people mentally psychologically improve themselves after a traumatic experience.
PTG happens when people who suffered from trauma look beyond miseries and build resilience. They gain new profound love for life and appreciation for their blessings.
How and why does it happen?
When people overcome a difficult situation, they first temporarily feel really down. Their mental health might be very negatively affected. After overcoming the challenges of coping with the incidents, they develop a new improved mindset.
For example – Someone who suffered from cancer for years and then survived, now understands the meaning of life and starts appreciating everything.
This life becomes more valuable for him.
Another example is, some war victims show high PTG. They become more optimistic, motivated and confident. Their feeling of gratitude and self-appreciation increases.
PTG mainly happens naturally, although some factors can be responsible for it. When people face a very bad situation and then they are back to normal again, they start to see how perfect and beautiful normal life is.
How does it affect life?
PTG affects people’s life in many ways – personal life, relationships, health etc. changes can be seen.
Personal changes –
- Positive mindset
- Emotional intelligence
- Confidence
- Self-acceptance
- More present minded
Relationships changes –
- Improved communication with family and friends.
- Sharing experiences and calming the mind through it.
- Appreciating them and making time for them.
Life mindset changes –
- Gratitude towards life.
- Appreciation for little things.
- Finding peace in nature.
- New and profound love for life.
When something traumatic happens, one might feel like it’s the end of the world. He might not even imagine something good will happen after these events. But with resilience and patience, one might slowly start realizing, why everything happened and should have happened that way for him to change and grow.
Not everyone’s journey is the same. Some people may take more time than others to overcome bad experiences.
It’s not like people who show PTG don’t suffer, they do. They just bounce back from the bad experiences and find new meaning of life.
Trauma is not a good thing. We don’t expect for anyone to experience trauma. But in life everyone eventually suffers from bad experiences. We can hope that whatever bad happens to you, in the long run, turns out to be a blessing in disguise.
After all, “What doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger.”
Writer:
Ramisa Shamrin Chowdhury
Intern, Content Writing Department, YSSE.