Life after trauma: everything is just beginning

A vivid example of a creative life filled with physical and emotional suffering is the biography of the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. In one of the self-portraits, we see her bleeding in a hospital bed. A network of arteries is spread around, connecting Frida with objects floating in space: a snail, a flower, bones and a human embryo. “Henry Ford Hospital” (as the painting is called) carries a “message of pain” about another miscarriage she experienced.

Frida Kahlo suffered from polio as a child, became a victim of a car accident, from the consequences of which she suffered all her life, and was never able to give birth to a child. However, she never complained about fate, realizing that she owed her productivity, including to her cruel blows.

The phenomenon of the relationship between creativity and life’s difficulties can be traced not only among people of art. Since the early 1990s, psychologists have used the term “post-traumatic growth” to refer to a person’s positive response to a painful experience. More than 300 scientific studies have been carried out on this topic.

Research by psychologists Richard Tedeschi and Lawrence Kalun of the University of North Carolina shows that more than 70% of trauma survivors show signs of inner growth. These signs can be expressed in the ability to enjoy every day, more harmonious interpersonal relationships, a richer spiritual life and a sense of personal strength.

For example, a successful fight against cancer brought one of the interviewees closer to other family members. Another respondent, who was on the verge between life and death, subsequently turned to spiritual practices. Traumatic experiences tend to lead to increased empathy and altruistic feelings.

What is needed in order not only to get out of personal hell, but also to become better thanks to these trials? And why does post-traumatic growth not occur in all cases?

According to Tedesha and Kalun, traumatic experiences, like an earthquake, shake up worldviews, beliefs, and identity structures. We find ourselves on the ruins of the former reality and are forced to rebuild it again. Cognitive processes after trauma can be compared to building a city that lies in ruins. Slowly we are rebuilding ourselves.

After a tragic event – a serious illness or the loss of a loved one – we constantly think about what happened and experience a range of strong emotions. Sadness, grief, anger, and anxiety are common reactions to trauma. At the same time, personal growth also occurs.

Psychologists consider post-traumatic growth a form of adaptation. It requires a revision of the attitudes imposed from the outside, which have been accumulating for years. This process can be exhausting, but it opens the door to a new life. The victim of trauma gets a chance to get acquainted with the deep layers of his own psyche, to know his true needs and in the future to build a life according to a unique scenario, and not according to a template.

“The adversities of life force us to think in new ways and look at things that we used to take for granted,” emphasizes Marie Forgard, a psychologist at Harvard Medical School.

Pain can enrich life with creativity. However, trauma by itself does not become a condition for creativity. Like a natural disaster, suffering is tragic and destructive, whether it is for self-expression or not. And whether we can be reborn from the ashes depends on conscious efforts and hidden opportunities.

Source: The Guardian.