Trauma & 'Grounded Hope'

Is there a link between traumatic suffering and subsequent success as a super-survivor?

Bay Area Psychologists on Why Trauma Makes Some Stronger:

http://www.kqed.org/a/forum/R201411061000

Nietzsche and the 'Triumph of the Will'? Any applications of this talk to TMS healing? Difficulty of giving up old goals that keep you frozen in TMS symptoms. Accepting mortality?

 

I am no authority on a link between traumatic suffering and success as a super-survivor
except to say that symptoms can come and go over time, depending on how we deal with our stresses
and how totally we believe that our symptoms are from TMS, repressed emotions and/or our personality.

I am 84 now and amazingly enough never thought much if at all about mortality
until I turned 80. Now it seems to be on my mind a lot. I am a Catholic and believe in Heaven
but sometimes I have my doubts. I've found that reading the Bible and watching television with
good Catholic or Christian speakers helps. Their assurance that there is a better life to come gives me hope.

I also have been thinking that when the time comes and I go, I will no longer worry about bills or money
or pain of any kind. That makes me more comfortable with the thought of going. And being with my family,
friends, and dogs again.

I found lots of good thoughts on mortality in web and Youtube searches. They can be comforting.

 

You can see the conflict in this discussion between orthodox CBT (Cognitive Behavior Therapy) and such radical therapies as Francine Shapiro's EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing). Interesting the way the discussion evolves toward refashioning a new “grounded hope” after life’s inevitable tragedies in contrast to the Norman Vincent Peal naive smiley faced hope. The ability to redefine hope to meet new tragic knowledge seems essential here. Sort of like the ‘Tragic Knowledge’ of the stone sages in William Butler Yeats's Lapis Lazuli: “Their ancient glittering eyes are sadly gay”.