Anything that doesn't kill us is still possible. "What doesn't kill us makes us stronger"

24.02.2019

We all know the phrase. American psychologists managed to prove with the help of research that these are not just words. Life's challenges really make you stronger! And if you do an analysis of life successful people, then in the biography of many of them, one can find periods serious trials. A study on the impact of adverse life events on mental health found that trials teach a person to adapt better and recover faster peace of mind. If you have now difficult period in life, hold on! Read more about the study here...

Life's challenges really make you stronger

Study participants reported negative events throughout their lives; they also recorded some indicators of mental health.

Other studies have found that life's challenges have a negative impact on mental health and well-being.

2389 people participated in this study. Scientists have found that people who have experienced adverse life events have better mental health and well-being than those who have not.

“We analyzed the impact of adverse events on such indicators as general mental exhaustion, functional impairment, post-traumatic stress, and life satisfaction. According to earlier research, adverse life events have a direct negative impact on measures of mental well-being. However, we were able to find a U-shaped relationship, that is, in people who underwent a large number of life's troubles, as well as people who did not tolerate them at all, showed good indicators of mental health and life satisfaction, ”explains Mark Seery, lead author of the study. (University of Buffalo, USA).

It also found that people who had previously experienced life's challenges were better than others at coping with recent adverse events.

Although it is impossible to establish a causal relationship, the authors of the study suggest that, to some extent, life's trials teach how to maintain and restore mental balance.

“Although we took into account only serious life tests, such as the loss of a loved one, in all likelihood, less tragic events also contribute to the development mental stamina”, adds Mark Seery.

Adapted from the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
Prepared by Anastasia Maltseva.
Source: Medlinks.ru

P.S. The material was recommended for publicationOlga Tutina(a regular reader of the blog and a participant in distance training). By publishing the results of my research on this blog, I hope that it will help many people to accept and overcome life's trials with dignity. Everything passes. What doesn't kill us makes us stronger. Thank you Olga!

Sincerely,
Dmitry Poslavsky.

Georgy Trofimov: “I started a businessfrom scratch,5 months ago. My advice is to take action!
15 success stories that will break your "impossible"
Irina Tarasova: “In 6 months I lost 9 kg and reached a monthly income of $1000
The right will help to fly up goal setting
Lyudmila Terentyeva: “Remember, you need to try! Even if you make a mistake, try again!

.

27 comments

  • lena said:

    I don’t agree, for the first time in my life I experienced a mental trauma, and I still can’t cope with it

    lena, perhaps you should consult a psychologist or psychotherapist.

    I was convinced of this truth on my own life experience over the past 3 years. Too many bad things happened, but now everything is much better.

    Crazy blows of stupid mistakes
    On their own skin, everyone has tried it.
    It is important, however,
    Make the right conclusion
    To miss the whip, do not test twice.

    In times of hardships, hardships and delusions.
    No need to cry into a vest.
    He is protected from bad weather.
    Who soberly looks, looking for a way out,
    What is wrong? How to get away from troubles?

    After all, everything that happens to us
    All…. From tears to smiles.
    We record in experience -
    Collection of our victories and mistakes.

    And everyone perceives differently
    Those lessons that he asks himself.
    Someone, out of difficulties, erects a fence.
    And someone creates a springboard from them.

    Do not be afraid of mistakes, problems, ... avoid failures.
    Paradox... But they are moving us forward.
    And our path, through life, is always illuminated.
    Just. They need to be understood, understood and solved ...

    There is such an American psychologist Larry Crabb, his book "Inside Out" helped me in a particularly difficult and VERY long period of continuous suffering. The idea of ​​this passage was - and I will say it in my own words - that one can direct one's primary interest in life first of all into conscious observation of oneself and building one's personality, and also the spiritual and personal growth that inevitably follows.
    If a person consciously chooses this path, then regardless of difficulties, trials, suffering and deprivation, he accustoms himself to rejoice on this path, despite tears and experiences. Moreover, the author offers VULNERABILITY and FORGIVENESS as the main and consciously chosen growth tools.
    Thus, having shifted his interest to the area of ​​growth, that is, attention, trust, love and respect for his own personality in the first place, a person gradually learns to find joy and benefit from any experience.
    For myself, I call it: THE JOY PRINCIPLE. I hold on to him and he justifies himself.
    Everyone suffers and is injured, this is an indispensable condition of our life. It is accompanied by pain, but I note that mostly pain occurs where healing and transformation are needed. And it depends only on the person's knowledge of what he wants and his choice.
    You can suffer and let your suffering go down the drain, in which case both I and you are really unfortunate people worthy of regret, or you can use the same suffering
    to build a solid foundation for growth, development, happiness, and much more, which together is called the FULL OF LIFE.
    It doesn't matter what happens to us, what matters is what we do with it!

    I agree with “madinna”: “difficulties break the weak, they make the strong LEN stronger.” strong, just, and can cope with the situation, accepting it as a useful experience. I’ll add on my own that the mess around us is a consequence of the mess in ourselves. my mess, brought me to health problems, and the further it got worse. perceived others, especially relatives, with wild irritation. all sorts of troubles stuck to me. I began to practice according to a certain methodology, but it took more than a year for noticeable results. the essence of the methodology is precisely to put things in order in oneself, and only after that environment will change for the better. there will always be difficulties, if you learn to be “friends” with them, then they will be for your own good ( personal experience priceless).

    I absolutely agree with Dmitry that the biographies of great people are direct proof of the saying “What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger”. Either you master the situation, pain, fear, illness, and become stronger from this, discover some new facets of yourself. Or negativity takes over you and your life. I think the answer to the question is critical here: “Are you afraid or not afraid?”. Pain, betrayal, death, lack of money ... If you accept the situation, find the reasons in yourself, change and move on, you will really become stronger. I know for myself.

People inspire us difficult situations, you can decorate your speech with them, use them in correspondence, on your page in in social networks. Someone chooses a particularly liked quote as their motto, and someone makes a tattoo with it. One of the favorite phrases of many is "What doesn't kill us makes us stronger." Let's get acquainted with its author, original, meaning and other interesting details.

Who said: "What doesn't kill us makes us stronger?" Meaning

The author of the catchphrase was a very controversial thinker Friedrich Nietzsche. The quote is understood in different meanings, but the essence of the interpretations is the same: only after overcoming significant difficulties, and even troubles, having experienced grief, a person will become a truly spiritually strong person.

The phrase, however, was taken out of context. Nietzsche did not want to put a romantic, motivational meaning into it and somehow urge his followers not to be afraid. hardships of life. These words are connected with his doctrine of the superman.

Quote in original

Friedrich Nietzsche is known to have been a German. Therefore, it will be interesting to decide how "What does not kill us makes us stronger" sounds like mother tongue author.

Was mich nicht umbringt, macht mich stärker - this is how this quote would look in German.

Superman Nietzsche

Friedrich Nietzsche devoted a lot of time to the study of the ultimate possibilities of people. And he believed that it was the superman who could go beyond these boundaries in order to become what he is. Note that Nietzsche characterized supermen with a rather large list of qualities, where going beyond the limits of emotional forces was just one of the points.

You can learn more about this topic by reading the work "Thus Spoke Zarathustra". Nietzsche's superman (Übermensch) is the image by which he denoted a being who, in spiritual power, would so surpass modern people how superior we are to the apes. According to the scientist's hypothesis, Übermensch is the next evolutionary step that will follow man.

However, F. Nietzsche noted that superhumans already exist among us, moreover, they were born a long time ago. To this category he attributed Julius Caesar, C. Borgia, Napoleon.

about the author

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche is a German philosopher, thinker, philologist, poet and composer. In addition, he is known to the world as the creator of an original philosophical movement.

If we look at the leitmotif of Nietzsche's works, we note his new criteria for evaluating the entire surrounding reality. He called into question all the principles and forms of morality, culture, art, social relations that existed in his era.

His most famous works are "Thus Spoke Zarathustra", "Beyond Good and Evil", "Twilight of the Idols", "Antichrist", Ecce Homo.

Nietzsche and aphorism

It's no secret that the thinker's teaching is broken down into quotations. The reason is that, being a philologist by training, Nietzsche paid great importance style of expressing their thoughts and views. They are not represented by him in a coherent system, but act as aphorisms - a concise short statement, a completely finished thought. In this phrase, the author tries to concentrate the essence of his judgments as much as possible and reflect the context of the expression.

Of course, Nietzsche did not choose this style of presentation in order to become famous for quoting his words. He spent a lot of time on long walks, and it was also difficult for him to sit over the records for a long time - the thinker began to have strong pain in his eyes. In particular, therefore, he chose such a short and capacious form of narration and reasoning.

How to understand the phrase?

Each of us is free to look for our own meaning in the phrase "What does not kill us makes us stronger." But still, let's see how other people understand it:

  • "There is no need to be afraid of difficulties and trials," turn sour "if there was a failure. We need all this to temper our character."
  • "We must not try to avoid problems, we must not be afraid to meet them face to face. Only then, having overcome them, we will gain invaluable life experience."
  • "If you feel bad now, it's temporary. You will definitely go through the test, transformed, becoming stronger."
  • "In order to understand something, to achieve something, it is necessary to overcome obstacles, disappointments, pain. Only this will make you a spiritually strong person."
  • "A person needs a negative experience in order to understand something, to rethink it. Only a personal experience of any difficulty can leave an imprint on the personality, character, worldview."
  • “There are difficulties and obstacles that can crush a person morally - the death of a loved one, the loss of everything that he cherished, the collapse of his ideals, faith, love. But if he copes with himself, finds the strength to move on, live and rejoice, this will be his victory. He became strong."

Nietzsche is wrong?

  • "The more a person experiences difficulties, the more he becomes indifferent, callous. But, is it stronger?"
  • "When a person meets with something that can kill her, spiritually or physically, she needs to become cruel, just to defeat it, not to let herself be overcome. So it's more correct to say: what does not kill us makes us cruel."
  • "Not all the difficulties and troubles that a person encounters will necessarily make him strong. Something will deprive him of faith in people, kindness, gullibility, faith in a happy future. And some difficulties can actually drive you crazy."
  • "Constantly repeating troubles lead to neuroses, fears, depressions, phobias. They make a person more embittered, more desperate, but hardly stronger."
  • "The phrase is applicable only to spiritual trials. A person will not be made stronger by a cancerous tumor that he managed to cope with, a serious injury that crippled his health, but did not kill him."
  • "From this phrase it follows that everyone will someday meet with such a test that he cannot cope with, and it will kill him. Not a very optimistic quote."

What doesn't kill us makes us stronger?

The authority of Friedrich Nietzsche, like the words of his authorship, is so convincing that many take what he says on faith. And they continue to live by the principle: the more difficulties I go through, the stronger I will be as a person. But is it?

Surely you will be interested in a curious study conducted by a team of scientists from the University of California (USA), led by S. Charles. Experts, of course, did not try to check exactly the relevance genius phrase"What doesn't kill us makes us stronger," but we decided to prove the fact that negative experiences lead to far from good consequences.

In 1995, psychologist D. Almeida (USA, Pennsylvania) conducted an extensive survey in which 1483 respondents of different ages, men and women, took part. They were asked to rate on a 5-point scale (never to always) how often they last month they experienced negative states: they felt unhappy, unnecessary, nervous. People should also note how many times they felt depressed, feeling like nothing was working out, the whole world was against them.

In another part of the test, the respondent noted whether he was in a state of stress the day before participating in the survey. The last part of the questionnaire included questions about whether the participant had ever been treated for emotional disorders, prolonged depression, and so on.

Ten years later, D. Almeida again tried to contact the respondents. However, by that time, someone was no longer alive, someone did not want to take the survey again. As a result, 711 people passed the second test. The questions in the questionnaire were the same.

A group of scientists led by S. Charles analyzed the results of D. Almeida's research. What this activity showed, fundamentally denied the phrase "What does not kill us, makes us stronger!". It turns out that the more often a person felt unnecessary ten years ago, abandoned, useless, fell into depression and was in stressful situations, the more likely that he currently has a serious mental disorder.

Of course, this trend is individual. Difficulties harden someone, and morally destroy someone. But one cannot but deny the fact that life's troubles, weak or strong, can not only strengthen the psyche, but also greatly weaken it. Therefore, Nietzsche's phrase "What does not kill us makes us stronger" is not relevant for everyone.

Other quotes from the author

We present you less famous aphorisms Friedrich Nietzsche, but just as interesting, inspiring and meaningful:

  • "Surface people always lie. Because they are devoid of any content."
  • "I don't understand why slander? If you want to annoy someone, tell some truth about him."
  • "Winners don't believe in chance."
  • "The herd is not attractive in any way. Even if it follows you."
  • "He who is poor in love will be stingy even with politeness."
  • "A good marriage is built on friendship and talent."
  • "Duty is the right of others to us."
  • "There is a danger of falling under the crew of a person who jumped out from under another crew."
  • "Man is what he has overcome."
  • "Excess is the best guarantee of success."

So we got to know both the phrase itself and its author better. Although she is far from known deep sense what Nietzsche put into it, the quote is very common, causes a lot of controversy and reasoning.

PHOTO Getty Images

Nietzsche was wrong, says a group of American scientists led by Susan Charles from the University of California (USA). Their research suggests that negative experiences have the exact opposite effect on many of us.

Back in 1995, Pennsylvania State University psychologist David M. Almeida began an experiment that involved 1,483 people, men and women. different ages. They were asked to take two tests. The first asked them to rate on a scale of 1 to 5 (with 1 being "never" and 5 being "always") how often during the last 30 days they felt: a) useless/hopeless/nervous/jittery/restless, b ) how often it seemed to them that everything they do required great effort, c) how often they were so sad that nothing seemed to be able to cheer them up.

In the second test, participants were asked to answer if they experienced any of these types of stress the day before the survey. Types of stress included arguing, situations in which they refrained from brewing disputes, problems at work, problems at home, worries about friends' problems. Finally, respondents were asked if they had had treatment for anxiety, depression, or any other emotional disorder during the previous year.

After 10 years, David Almeida tried again to contact the same respondents. Someone has already died, someone refused to take part in the survey a second time, someone moved. About half of the participants responded - 711 people from 25 to 74 years old. Almeida asked them to rate, on the same scale, how often they had experienced various negative emotions over the past 30 days. He also asked again if they had had any emotional treatment in the last 12 months.

The results of the two surveys were analyzed by a group of scientists from different American universities. They found that, contrary to Nietzsche's idea, seemingly small sources of everyday stress from the past had a long-term impact on the mental health of the respondents.

“The more often people felt worthless/hopeless/nervous/twitchy/restless (though they did not yet require treatment for psychiatric disorders), the more likely they were to develop a psychiatric disorder 10 years later,” the authors conclude.

Of course, the reason may be personal characteristics rather than in difficult circumstances. It is clear that different people react differently to similar unpleasant events. What makes one person feel worthless, another will just give up. However, the results of the study show that for some people, even small problems can have Negative consequences- weakening, not strengthening the psyche. In other words, the more painful we perceive everyday small difficulties, the more vulnerable our mental health will be in the future. So catchphrase Nitsche if fair, then, alas, not for everyone.

When a “black streak” begins in life, many fall into depression, thereby further exacerbating the current situation. Submitting to circumstances, they seem to admit in advance that they have lost. And they don’t even try to find a way out, deciding that there’s nothing to be done anyway. Such thoughts are the first sign of weakness. You need to fight in any case, no matter what trials life has prepared.

You don’t need to set yourself up for bad things, but you also don’t need to expect only gifts from life. Any circumstances should be perceived as an experience that forms an attitude towards the surrounding reality.

Do not count on the help and support of loved ones. Yes, when there are sympathetic people around, it is easier to survive troubles. On the other hand, this is also a step backwards. Support, words of comfort very often give rise to feelings of self-pity. They rarely motivate to take decisive action. The words of loved ones have a calming effect, and there is a desire to come to terms with the situation, and not overcome it. That's why it's often more beneficial to try to figure things out on your own. Of course, don't hesitate to ask for help. But also count on her, accusing others of indifference, too. Perhaps the self-elimination of loved ones from solving your problems is the first step towards the beginning of a new, brighter and rich life which you will manage yourself.

Don't blame yourself for all problems. Self-digging is the first step to deep depression. It is better to direct energy to find a way out of the current unpleasant situation.

Why life's difficulties make people stronger

Not everyone who has experienced unpleasant events is able to become stronger. Many “break down”, start drinking alcohol to forget. This is the path to the bottom. Intoxication only temporarily relieves problems, makes you stop thinking about them. But it doesn't solve them. Troubles accumulate, “wind up” on each other, and every day it becomes more and more difficult to find a way out. That is why it is necessary to deal with difficult circumstances as soon as they appear. Think about solving problems, look for ways to overcome them, and not hide from them. Only such behavior can turn a person into a strong whole personality. And the sooner this happens, the easier it will be to live on. Minor troubles that previously seemed insoluble will simply cease to be noticed. And major problems will be perceived not as tragedies, but as another way to show their best qualities and get new experience.



Similar articles