 What is up, everybody? This is Chris from the Rewired Soul, where we talk about the problem, but focus on the solution. And if you're new to my channel, my channel is all about mental health. So if you're somebody like me who is actively trying to improve your mental and emotional wellbeing, make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell. All right, I have wanted to make this video for a long time. And let me kind of set the scene for you, okay? So as a bunch of you know, I'm a big nerd when it comes to learning about mental health and psychology and brain development and all that kind of stuff. And something that I've always been fascinated with and curious about is, how is it that you can have two people in the exact same situation and have two completely different outcomes, right? One of the times that this really started to get my wheels turning was when I was working at the Drug and Alcohol Rehab, right? Like, you would have clients in there who were like, oh man, this rehab sucks. This is the worst thing ever. Everybody sucks. Everything sucks. The therapist sucks. The group sucks. The food sucks. Everything, right? And they would hate the entire experience. But in that exact same room, in that exact same room, somebody sitting right next to him was like, this is the best thing that ever happened to me. This has changed my life, right? One person would go off and they would just live this incredible life in sobriety. The other person would relapse, right? And I'm sitting there. I'm like, how can these two people who went through the exact same experience have two different outcomes, right? And then I look at different mental health aspects, like how come some people recover from their depression? How come some people recover from their anxiety? How come some people don't? You know what I mean. But one particular one that I'm really interested in is trauma, post-traumatic stress disorder, okay? There are often times, like many times where there are multiple people who go through the same exact traumatic experience, but how come some recover and some don't, right? How come some are more affected and others aren't? You know what I mean? This is something that I've always been curious about. There are many people who experience childhood trauma, repeated abuse. Some people have been assaulted, right? There are other people who are, you know, war veterans or people who experience things like 9-11 or the Holocaust or here in Las Vegas a few years ago, we had that mass shooting here, right? How come some people are able to, you know, recover a little bit more quickly or have fewer symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder? Why, why, why, why? And something that just keeps coming up, that keeps coming up in so many books is something called post-traumatic growth, okay? And I'm sitting here and, like I said, I read a ton. I do a ton of research. And this is something that I've just learned about in the past, I don't know, year or so. And I'm sitting there, I'm like, well, if I'm just now learning about this thing called post-traumatic growth, how come, you know, or why is it that others don't know about it either, right? So I was like, you know what? I need to make a video about this because maybe it can help some people, you know, like myself who are struggling with trauma and maybe it'll give them a little hope that they can recover. So I'm going to be reading a little bit from this article I found from the American Psychiatric Association. I'll link it down in the description below. But like I said, there's a ton of books on this. There's so much information out there, but please check it out. Like, if you struggle with trauma, like just know there is a way to grow from this thing, okay? So what is post-traumatic growth, okay? So here are different positive responses people with post-traumatic growth have, okay? One of them is a new appreciation for life, okay? So just to give you, you know, an example, I'll use myself as an example, you know, I've been through, you know, my own childhood trauma. I've almost died on multiple occasions and things like that. And something that I no longer do, I no longer sit and think about, oh my God, I almost died, right? I almost died, I almost died. That's not the way I frame that situation anymore. It's more of like, oh my God, like I'm alive today. And I appreciate every moment that I have on this planet, right? Like with my son, with my girlfriend, with my family, with my friends, with all of you, you know what I mean? The next one is improved relationships with others. Again, that kind of trickles into what I was just saying in that last one, that new appreciation. And like something that I think about a lot, like right now as the time of, I'm recording this and hopefully it ends sooner rather than later, but we're in this pandemic. But whenever a massive tragedy happens, I see a lot of people on social media or, you know, in the news and like, hey, now's the time to, you know, call your loved ones and tell them that you love them because you never know what's gonna happen tomorrow, right? Well, because of my, you know, experience and my traumas, I do that every day. Like I don't need a tragic event in the world to make me tell people, you know, in my life how much I love and appreciate them. Like, I'm not even joking with you. Like I do not go to sleep at night without telling my son I love him. I don't let him get out of the car to go to school without me telling him I love him and make sure he tells me back. Like it's just something that I try to do on a regular basis. So the next positive response is recognizing new possibilities in life, right? Knowing that, you know, we did survive. We did get through that. What can we achieve now? The next one is personal strength and I think this one is huge. This is so, so, so huge, right? Like this is why when I talk about trauma, I try to use the word survivor and not victim. I think there's power in using the word survivor and not victim. Like survivor means, yeah, you got through it. Like you are a badass. You got through this thing, right? Like we often think like we're gonna get more than we can handle, but we made it through it. Like you are a strong person. Like if you are getting up each day after the trauma, right? If you are, you know, doing what you need to do like being there for friends and family, going to work, taking care of the house, taking care of your kids, whatever it is. Like that takes strength. And then finally is spiritual change. And I guess what they talk about is they're trying to like, you know, find a new word for spiritual change. But for somebody like me who is an agnostic and went through like 12 step programs was a lot of like, you know, spirituality. Spiritual change can just be like realizing like, you know, there's something bigger than ourselves and this doesn't have to be some entity up in the sky or whatever it is. But it's just, you know, the planet, the universe, right? And noticing like, you know, this vast connection with others, you know what I'm saying? So I wanna elaborate real quick when it comes to post-traumatic growth. A lot of people interviewed who experienced post-traumatic growth who have grown from their trauma. Like I'll never forget, there's one man in specific. I can't remember his name. But anyways, he lost a son. Like his son was young too and he lost a son and he, you know, the father experienced post-traumatic growth but, you know, he'll tell people like if he could reverse it, like if he never had to go through that, if his son was still alive today, he would take that any day, any time, you know what I mean? So I just wanna, you know, make it clear that even though people experienced post-traumatic growth, it doesn't mean like we should go running in and looking for traumatic experiences. Like these are awful difficult situations. But anyways, how prevalent is it? How prevalent is post-traumatic growth? Like we're constantly hearing about trauma. We're constantly hearing about PTSD. And here's one of the reasons why I wanna make this video. We automatically assume that most people who go through a traumatic experience, experience PTSD, but that's actually not the case. Like check it out. Various studies, depending on which one you look at, between 50 and 80% of people experience post-traumatic growth. Between half and two thirds plus of people do not develop post-traumatic stress disorder, all right? Think about that for a second. Like I think that says a lot about human resilience and what we're capable of and how we can get through things. You know what I mean? So they talk about who's more prone to experience post-traumatic growth, but also who is more likely to recover from trauma, right? Like the way I wanna explain that is for many years my trauma held me back and it greatly affected my life and it was something that made it difficult for me to just live day to day. You know what I mean? But although I still have those memories and that anxiety that comes with trauma is much better than it used to be, okay? So one of the core components to recover from trauma or to prep yourself for post-traumatic growth because we never know when it's gonna happen is openness to experience, okay? And one of the psychiatrists who discussed this, here's what they said about it. There appear to be two traits that make some more likely to experience post-traumatic growth, says Tadeshi, openness to experience and extroversion. That's because people who are more open are more likely to reconsider their belief systems, all right? I don't have time to dive into the extroversion because, but I also think that openness to experience is something that a lot more of us are capable of than extroversion, like I ain't gonna be no extrovert, okay? But anyways, openness to experience. Like think about that. Like those of us who aren't in this fixed mindset, this is the way things are and everything like that, like Dr. Carol Dweck, she talks a lot about growth mindset. Openness to experience allows us to change beliefs, to rewire our brains, right? Maybe the way we're thinking about something is incorrect or maybe there's a new way we can look at it. Like think about the best forms of therapy out there, like cognitive behavioral therapy or rational and motive behavioral therapy. These are therapies around reforming your beliefs, okay? So openness to experience. How open we are, are we to have things happen to us and kind of face our fears and then see how maybe, maybe it can be a possibility for us to grow. And I think openness to experience also helps us a lot with our anxiety, our depression, you know what I mean? Like when we're anxious to do something or put ourselves out there, like we often sit there when we future trip about how awful this is gonna be, all the terrible things that can happen. But then what if we took a step back and say, hey, what if I can learn something from this situation? What if this situation makes me a better person? What if this situation makes me a stronger person? You see what I mean? So openness to experience is something that we all should be working on, okay? So yeah, I really wanted to make this video just to give some people out there, maybe just a little bit of hope. Like there is a way to recover from trauma and in fact, most people do. Now, if you have not recovered from trauma yet, don't worry, there's nothing wrong with you, okay? There are other components for some people, you know, we're more prone to PTSD because of genetics and things like that. And some of us, we just need a little bit more treatment or therapy than others, but just realize that people out there who have recovered from trauma or experienced post-traumatic growth, they're nothing special. They are nothing special, we're all just human beings. It's all about, are we willing to try to reframe the way we look at situations? Are we willing to try to go to therapy? Are we willing to try to go to treatment? Are we willing to try to journal and do different exercises to help us, okay? From my experience, that's what separates people is who has the willingness to try something to improve their situation, you know what I mean? But anyways, that's all I got for this video. If you liked this video, please give it a thumbs up. If you're new, make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell. And a huge, huge thank you to everybody who supports the channel over on Patreon, as well as everybody who supports the channel over at therewiredsoul.com, by buying my mental health books and everybody who gets merged from the merch store. You're all awesome, all right? Thanks again for watching, I'll see you next time.