Nietzsche’s aphorism sounds so inspiring that we willingly accept it on faith, without worrying about the evidence. But do traumatic experiences always harden us?
Nietzsche was wrong, says a group of American scientists led by Susan Charles from the University of California (USA). Their research suggests that negative experiences have the opposite effect on many of us.
Back in 1995, University of Pennsylvania psychologist David Almeida began an experiment that involved 1483 people, men and women of all ages. They were asked to take two tests.
The first asked them to rate on a scale of 1 to 5 (with 1 being “never” and 5 being “always”) how often during the last 30 days they felt: a) useless/hopeless/nervous/jittery/restless ) how often it seemed to them that everything they do required great effort, c) how often they were so sad that nothing seemed to be able to cheer them up.
Small sources of everyday stress from the past had a long-term impact on the mental health of respondents
In the second test, participants were asked to answer if they experienced any of these types of stress the day before the survey. Types of stress included arguing, situations in which they refrained from brewing disputes, problems at work, problems at home, worries about friends’ problems. Finally, respondents were asked if they had had treatment for anxiety, depression, or any other emotional disorder during the previous year.
After 10 years, David Almeida tried again to contact the same respondents. Someone has already died, someone refused to take part in the survey a second time, someone moved.
About half of the participants responded – 711 people from 25 to 74 years old. Almeida asked them to rate, on the same scale, how often they had experienced various negative emotions over the past 30 days. He also asked again if they had had any emotional treatment in the last 12 months.
The results of the two surveys were analyzed by a group of scientists from different American universities. They found that, contrary to Nietzsche’s idea, small sources of everyday stress from the past had a long-term impact on the mental health of the respondents.
The more painful we perceive everyday small difficulties, the more vulnerable our mental health will be in the future.
“The more often people felt worthless/hopeless/nervous/twitchy/restless (though they had not yet needed treatment for psychiatric disorders), the more likely they were to develop a psychiatric disorder 10 years later,” the authors conclude.
Of course, the reason may be in personal characteristics, and not in difficult circumstances. Different people react differently to similar unpleasant events. What makes one person feel worthless, another will just give up. Nevertheless, the results of the study show that for some, even small troubles mean negative consequences – weakening, not strengthening the psyche.
In other words, the more painful we perceive everyday small difficulties, the more vulnerable our mental health will be in the future. So Nietzsche’s catchphrase, if true, is, alas, not for everyone.
Source: The Economist.