Member-only story
It’s Never Too Late to Turn Trauma Into Growth
The psychology of post-traumatic growth can help us understand why some people become stronger, braver, and more creative after the worst moment of their lives
It’s been 29 days since I lost my partner in a swimming accident. And for the 29th day, I’m awake at an ungodly hour writing. Writing about his life, and mine. Writing about everything I learned and how deeply we loved in our too-short time together.
The last time I experienced a surge of creativity like this was three years ago, when my divorce was finalized. This wasn’t one of your run-of-the-mill separations where we tried to work it out but couldn’t. This divorce came on fast and hard and necessarily. But while I fully expected to fall apart, I didn’t. Instead, in between waves of shock and grief, I learned to play a new instrument to remind me how brave I was. I started sharing my songs and writing publicly and started a new graduate school program. I wanted to remind myself I was still alive.
We all know about post-traumatic stress disorder, when the impact of a traumatic event causes psychological distress and manifests as anxiety, intrusive thoughts, ongoing fear, and reactive symptoms. But in the 1990s, researchers began to take note of another…
