Trauma Also Helps People Develop Resilience

Small amounts of trauma can boost people's resilience to whatever life can throw their way, scientists determined in a new study. They defined the concept as covering anything from suffering an assault and going through a hurricane to losing a loved one or family member.

Bad experiences are known to cause severe mental side-effects, including depression, anxiety, paranoid illusions and post-traumatic stress disorder. However, when exposed to only limited amounts of trauma, a person can become more resilient to these things in the future.

Details of the investigation were published in the December issue of the journal Current Directions in Psychological Science. The study was conducted by experts at the University of Buffalo, who were led by researcher Mark D. Seery, PsychCentral reports.

“Just because something bad has happened to someone doesn’t mean they’re doomed to be damaged from that point on,” the expert explains.