While most psychologists agree that experiencing traumatic life experiences can leave individuals vulnerable to a variety of negative psychological issues, recent research from Dr. Mark Seery at the University of Buffalo suggests that trauma may build resilience in individuals. "Seery and his colleagues found that people who experienced many traumatic life events were more distressed in general—but they also found that people who had experienced no negative life events had similar problems. The people with the best outcomes were those who had experienced some negative events. Another study found that people with chronic back pain were able to get around better if they had experienced some serious adversity, whereas people with either a lot of adversity or none at all were more impaired" (Traumatic Experiences, 2011). More details about this study, which was published in the December issue of Current Directions in Psychological Science, can be found by clicking
here.
