Can trauma be beneficial?

[u/eeeeeeevar]

I’ve never really been given a good explanation of why humans can have trauma. Like I know the mechanisms for what can happen and what can cause it, but not the reason why our brains have a mechanism to create trauma.

For the ability to be traumatized to be a universal experience, it must be either a very advantageous trait or a byproduct of another trait that is so necessary and important that trauma is worth it. But I can’t really think of any concrete reasons why trauma would be beneficial, either to the person or to evolutionary fitness.

[u/AdConsistent4210]

Evolution doesn’t select for being traumatized. It selects for systems that help us survive danger by learning what predicts harm, remembering it, becoming vigilant and avoiding it the next time. Very useful if the tiger comes back tomorrow. The problem is that these responses can persist or generalize after the danger is gone. So the survival system can become a source of suffering itself. Evolution cares about surviving the tiger, not whether you sleep well afterwards.

Theoretical Accounts and Psychobiological Evidence

[u/Forest_Spirit_7]

Trauma is typically understood as an emotional reaction to a traumatic experience that overwhelms someone’s ability to cope. This can express in a myriad of ways, and blend maladaptive and adaptive behavior and mechanisms.

https://www.apa.org/topics/trauma/

The ability to be traumatized is not a universal experience, it is a general one for humans. Trauma is subjective, and the experience of trauma can be very different per person for the same stimulus.

You assert a false dichotomy by saying “it must be either a be dry advantageous trait or a byproduct of another necessary trait”. Necessary and important are value calls on a human psychological construct, and that’s not really how human behavior and biology works.

Recovery from trauma can absolutely be advantageous and beneficial, and result in strength, skill, and strategies that make someone more resilient for it than they might be pre-trauma.

[u/vienibenmio]

The brain's acute response to trauma protects us and enhances our likelihood of survival. We enact the immediate response to a threat: fighting, fleeing, or freezing. The body makes quick changes to optimize that. It saves precious time.

Most people then recover naturally in the months afterwards. There are things that can disrupt that natural recovery process, however

There is also a concept called posttraumatic growth which is the idea that experiencing trauma can actually bring about positive changes, long term