I once read how, when Jawaharla Nehru’s father died, three weeks later, a letter arrived wherever he was then living in India. This occurred in 1931, but the letter was dated, February 28, 1926. Somehow, this letter, bearing postmarks of various locations, had followed him, or “lay in some pideonholes,” and finally reached him just after his father died. Nehru’s father had sent the letter five years before just prior to his son’s departure for Europe from India in 1926. According to Nehru, “Curiously, it was a letter of farewell” (Toward Freedom, 186). At this time, Nehru engaged in traditional grieving, reconsidering the joys of his connection to his father and imagining what would now be lost due to his father's absence. I find true beauty in this passage but I share it as much to open a conversation about what we call "Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)" or simply Post-Traumatic Stress (PTS), or perhaps the even less severe version, Acute Stress Response (ASR), and how these relate to Post-Traumatic Growth (PTG).
First, to qualify, I am not a trained clinician by any means, so anything I say here should not be mistaken for a true professional's insights into work in human responses to trauma-inducing experiences. However, I do hope what I share will be helpful to anyone interested in research on these areas related to human psychology. I also believe that, on some level, almost everyone experiences some version of, at least, PTS or ASR, as well as PTG. For example, Nehru's attempt to render this grief experience in words, to "write it out," so to speak, and to reflect on the pain that accompanied the loss of his father, suggests that the death of a loved one, by itself, qualifies as a "PTS" or "ASR" type of experience. I would go farther and argue that Nehru actively pursued a PTG experience, even though he could not have recognized it as such, since these terms were not yet invented.
I became aware of PTG through a job I held from 2006 to 2011, under a Department of Defense contract that allowed me to work with the Army National Guard in the states. Spending cuts in 2011 eliminated the position (which might delight some posters on DailyKos--though I believe our work with servicemembers and veterans on education was necessary and worthwhile); nevertheless, I do know that those five years did much to advance my own understanding of many things, as a Vietnam-era veteran and as an educator.
It was around 2007 that I began hearing references to PTG at workshops for educators regarding veterans returning to the classroom, as well as in discussions at soldier reintegration seminars, which I was honored to participate in as a civilian. Leaving aside arguments as to the relative effectiveness of barraging men and women who have just returned from a combat zone with information designed to aid their transition back into life "back home," amid severe budget and manpower constraints, I would truly argue that the Army and its civilian partners earnestly did (and I'm sure still do) the best that they can under those circumstances to assist military personnel and veterans. Try to imagine what is often several thousand newly arrived veterans from Iraq or Afghanistan being moved from station to station, for medical and psychological screenings, new unit assignments, benefits briefings, talks on "what to expect" related to job prospects or family/friend responses to their service, all while most of the veterans are primarily focused on reconnection with those same families, friends and communities--to get back home.
Part of what motivated the National Guard's adoption of PTG discussions, I believe, was the experience of a psychology professor in Arkansas, who was a Guard soldier, and who had served in Iraq counseling soldiers. I attended one of his presentations but will refrain from sharing details because the event took place as part of contractual duties and is, I believe, therefore, "protected" information. Based on that experience and presentations in which I participated with combat veteran officers, I gathered that the PTG-focus was a response to repeated experiences among soldiers in which they felt either marginalized or mischaracterized as "at-risk" by well-meaning but ill-informed college faculty, administrators or fellow-students. In some cases, respondents made soldiers/veterans feel as though, because they'd seen combat, they were candidates for any number of emotional breakdowns.
I am not here to criticize either the military or civilian organizations for what I might perceive as their abilities to cope with veterans returning to state-side duty, civilian life, or whatever we might term "normalcy" after one or multiple combat tours. Nor would I ever seek to diminish the dire and often tragic consequences of unrecognized or untreated PTSD, or any kind of serious stress on any person, whether that person has survived domestic violence, rape, combat or the death of a loved one. Having been in therapy multiple times, myself, during which I learned that, I, too, was experiencing PTSD-related symptoms some 40 years after the stress-inducing event, I truly believe I am sympathetic to the sufferer and caregiver(s). Moreover, the job I mentioned above allowed me to speak with, interview, and write about the experiences of dozens of combat veterans. I was always and remain in awe of the amazing individuals I worked with. Despite what many endured, they invariably appeared to be the most gentle, humble, and generous people I came into contact with during the time I served in that position. One young woman from Florida, whom I later nominated for a national academic award, downplayed her scholarly and military achievements as though anyone in her position would do the same. She was proud of her Combat Medic Badge as much for the fact that she was able to be of greater assistance to her "battle buddies" as for the distinction that she'd been allowed to participate on one of the few Female Engagement Teams then operating. When I asked if she'd come under fire, in the typical understated fashion of many veterans, she said, "Well, not really, except for that one time when we were trying to assist civilians and came under small arms fire," as if it were little more than operating in a rainstorm.
Or there was a young man I met at a redeployment, who, when asked if he thought he might have experienced anything leading to PTSD, said, "I don't think so. I mean, an IED did blow up under my truck, and it did lift off the ground, but I came through it OK. I mean, I've got two arms and two legs."
When I asked if he had any residual effects from the experience, he said, "Well, I did have some ringing in my ears and pretty bad headaches."
I said, "I'll bet you're glad that's over."
He replied, "Actually, I still have them." Then he proceeded to walk off with a friend, having a smoke and laughing about something.
I will not go into an angry tangent about how I feel that our nation took so many of its best and brightest, allowing them to experience hardship or tortures or inflict the same (which also twists their psyches) on behalf of legislators whose experience (and whose offsprings' experiences) involve increasing less combat or even military experience. No wonder those legislators have found it increasingly easy to get stingy over benefits to these veterans. I have raged often enough on these matters in private and less private places. Also I will not seek sympathy for the tears I have shed for these amazing individuals, for that was part of my own "coming to terms" with grief. And they never asked for my tears, anyway. Perhaps I still do have some more healing to do in these areas, which I might or might not share.
My purpose here is to share with you that while we must assist those struggling with PTSD in any way we can through a transitional period, with as much financial and professional help as we can get with that, we can also recognize and encourage the attainment of PTG through the process of transitioning.
Since many individuals in this virtual community have personal experience, or loved ones with personal experience, with the military, combat, and PTSD caused under any number of circumstances, I thought I might share with you a good place to go to also learn about PTG. In looking back over posts at this excellent site going back several years, I see that PTSD and readjustment after trauma has received excellent, thoughtful, and practical coverage from so many contributors. I wish not to duplicate anyone else's fine work.
However, I did a pretty thorough search of the site going back about eight years and didn't see any references to PTG, so I thought I would also mention it, as much to encourage hope as to inform.
For those interested, I suggest that you visit the University of North Carolina at Charlotte's Post-Traumatic Growth (PTG) Institute (http://ptgi.uncc.edu/). In fact, the site maintains no focus on any "type" of stress-inducing event or experience. Moreover, it provides free information for downloading, including peer-reviewed articles by PTGI scientists, two of whom, Richard Tedeschi and Lawrence Calhoun, helped found the Institute. They and their colleagues have conducted research to indicate a more nuanced, and perhaps more hopeful, reality for veterans (and anyone) returning to life after a profoundly traumatic, life-changing experience.
According to Tedeschi and Calhoun in "Posttraumatic Growth: A New Perspective on Psychotraumatology," most people, including combat veterans, who experience a PTS-inducing experience, do not develop a "disorder," but most do experience PTG. Through a "paradox of traumatic experience," those exposed to the traumatic event reevaluate their goals, indeed, their inner selves, their past and future, and they experience renewal in their relationships, sense strength through vulnerability, and gain emotional growth and spiritual expansion by having been tested through the stress. After their initial readjustment, then, such individuals would be, presumably, more apt to succeed than had they not gone through the PTS experience (2004). While I am not arguing that everyone should seek out more stress-inducing experiences to elevate their prospects for succeeding at something, I am hopeful that we can see in our wounded brothers and sisters (and our wounded selves) the seeds for even greater achievements, if we work with each other, if we understand.
As I mentioned earlier, Nehru's "talking" or writing through his experience of his father's death actually brings to light two therapeutic approaches to transitioning that can help individuals avert disorder development and move toward growth experience. So, in addition to "talk" therapy there are powerful movements in creative arts therapy and spiritual "healing" or therapy. Equine and pet therapy have also been practiced successfully, independent of and with government assistance. One therapist for a VA hospital in Florida whom I once invited to speak on a panel conducts writing, sculpture, and equine therapy sessions for veterans. Through his work, he told me, veterans going back as far as World War II are discovering healing that they were not even aware they ever needed.
I believe I am sensitive to the tragedy that the wars have visited on servicemembers, veterans and their families, as well as the families of those who have been killed or maimed in the nations in which we've fought. If I may say so, some of my recent sorrow was over the loss of our federal contract, not for the loss of a paycheck. What I miss more than money, truly, is the ability to meet with, talk to and learn from our servicemembers and veterans. It turns out working with them played a big part in my own Post-Traumatic Growth.
Be blessed and healed.
References
Nehru, Jawaharlal, Toward Freedom: The Autobiography of Jawaharlal Nehru. New York: The John Day Company, 1942.
Tedeschi, Richard and Lawrence Calhoun. (2004, April 1). "Posttraumatic Growth: A New Perspective on Psychotraumatology." Psychiatric Times. 21 (4). See http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/.... Additional information, including full text, peer-reviewed articles, can be viewed at http://ptgi.uncc.edu/...)