Over the course of my professional career, I've worked alot with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. That is, helping people heal emotionally from traumatic experiences. The long term effects of trauma on individuals is pretty well documented.
However, a researcher who has looked at prisoners of war from Vietnam and Korea discovered an interesting trend--Post Traumatic Health. While some POW's suffered delibitating effects from a result of their confinement, others, like Sam Johnson and John McCain reported having their lives transformed and priorities reordered profoundly by their experiences. They became better people for having survived their trauma.
Post Traumatic Health?
Returning POWs had two main mantras: Bounce Back! and Return With Honor. These mottos gave many of these men a focus and a purpose in their sufferings. It fired them with a goal; not just to survive, but to "endure well" the horrible things they went through.
Hmmm. Given the current state of the economy and the world, most parents fear that their children will be exposed to some traumatic experiences in their life time.
To this end, let's begin to focus a little more on helping them prepare to Bounce Back and a little less on having and being insulated. How do we do that?
Stay tuned!
Sunday, March 1, 2009
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