22 votes

Past stressful experiences do not create resilience to future trauma, new study finds

5 comments

  1. [3]
    intuxikated
    Link
    I can relate to this. kind of. My father used to spank me hard, its okay over here because beating children is ingrained in my culture's parenting system. Even after I became adult I panic...

    I can relate to this. kind of. My father used to spank me hard, its okay over here because beating children is ingrained in my culture's parenting system. Even after I became adult I panic whenever my father comes near me. When I used to complain about his actions he always comes up with justifications with something along the lines of "you'll understand when you are out in the real world" or "you should be resilient because next time it won't be me". And I turned out to be just the opposite, I lack basic social skills and any kind of emotional resilience.

    8 votes
    1. [2]
      teaearlgraycold
      (edited )
      Link Parent
      I can't understand how people can go through life not resorting to violence to solve their problems at work and with friends and then spontaneously decide they should hit their own children to...

      I can't understand how people can go through life not resorting to violence to solve their problems at work and with friends and then spontaneously decide they should hit their own children to teach them. Maybe some of those people aren't so non-violent at work, but that seems like a quick way to never hold a job.

      6 votes
      1. intuxikated
        Link Parent
        I don't know about others, but my dad does face lot of problems at work. He owns a local electrical repair shop, he would get into fights (not physical) with his employees quite often, I don't...

        I don't know about others, but my dad does face lot of problems at work. He owns a local electrical repair shop, he would get into fights (not physical) with his employees quite often, I don't think anybody have worked for him for more than a years.

        2 votes
  2. [3]
    Comment deleted by author
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    1. Algernon_Asimov
      Link Parent
      This isn't about timing. From the study: They asked Chileans whether they'd experienced previous stressful events in their life: "serious illness or injury, death of a loved one, divorce,...

      This isn't about timing.

      From the study:

      At baseline, participants completed the Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI), a comprehensive psychiatric diagnostic instrument, and the List of Threatening Experiences, a 12-item questionnaire that measures major stressful life events. During the study (2010), the sixth most powerful earthquake on record struck Chile. One year later (2011), the CIDI was re-administered to assess post-disaster PTSD and/or MDD.

      They asked Chileans whether they'd experienced previous stressful events in their life: "serious illness or injury, death of a loved one, divorce, unemployment or financial struggles, legal troubles or loss of a valuable possession". Every stressful event in their lives was catalogued.

      And then the psychologists waited.

      7 years after they asked the study participants to complete the questionnaire, an earthquake struck.

      A year after that, they checked the study participants for stress and depression. The ones who said they had experienced previous stressful events in their life were more likely to have PTSD and/or MDD that the ones who didn't - and the more stressful events someone had experienced, the higher the likelihood they developed PTSD and/or MDD due to the earthquake.

      There's nothing in the study to indicate that an earlier stressful event had less correlation with post-earthquake stress than a later stressful event experienced. "A dose–response relationship between pre-disaster stressors and post-disaster MDD was found." In other words, the more stressors you have, the more likely you'll develop stress.

      7 votes
    2. patience_limited
      Link Parent
      There's not a lot of reported data on the age at which the study participants first experienced trauma. There's a fair amount of research to suggest that pre-adulthood negative experiences appear...

      There's not a lot of reported data on the age at which the study participants first experienced trauma. There's a fair amount of research to suggest that pre-adulthood negative experiences appear to predispose to inability to cope with subsequent trauma.

      Resilience is a matter of perceived control over your circumstances, and available choices in how to respond. If you're stuck at basic fight-or-flight levels of emotional programming from childhood, you may never develop the scope of responses to handle recurrent adult traumas well. The stuck responses can be modified, but it's not something that everyone can do for themselves without professional intervention.

      7 votes