次，她实在不堪忍受了，她的医生所做的一切似乎都不起作用。要么让疾病结束她的生命，要么她就得很快了结自己的生命了。

9 As her sleepless nights wore on, though, her suicidal thoughts began to be interrupted by new feelings of gratitude. She was still in agony, but a new consciousness grew stronger each night: an awesome sense of liberation, combined with an all-encompassing feeling of sympathy and compassion. \she said six months later. \was useless-time, money, self-image, perception. Recognizing that was so freeing.\

9然而，在经历了若干个不眠之夜后，她想自杀的念头开始被新的感激之情所打断。虽然她仍然感到痛苦，但一种新的意识每一夜都变得更加强烈:一种令人惊叹的解脱感，结合着一种包容一切的同情和怜悯的情感。“我感到一切我曾经用来认同自己身份的东西都被剥夺了，”六个月后她这样说道，“一切我认为我知道或相信的事物—时间、金钱、自我形象、对事物的看法—都毫无价值了。意识到这一点真是让我感到解脱。”

10 Within a few months, she began to be able to move more freely, thanks to a cocktail of steroids and other drugs. She says now there's no question that her life is better. \

6

and why we're here: to be happy and to nurture other life. It's that simple.\

10在几个月内，得益于类固醇加其他药物的鸡尾酒疗法，她开始能够更加自如地活动了。她说，毫无疑问她现在的生活状况有了好转。“我感觉我窥探到了生命的秘密以及我们生存的意义，那就是快乐地生活，同时扶持他人。就这么简单!”

11 Her mind-blowing experience came as a total surprise. But that feeling of transformation is in some ways typical, says Rich Tedeschi, a professor of psychology at the University of North Carolina in Charlotte who coined the term \have endured extreme events, like combat, violent crime or sudden serious illness show that most feel dazed and anxious in the immediate aftermath; they are preoccupied with the idea that their lives have been shattered. A few are haunted long afterward by memory problems, sleep trouble and similar symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder . But Tedeschi and others have found that for many people-perhaps even the majority-life ultimately becomes richer and more gratifying.

11她这种不可思议的经历完全是个惊喜。但是北卡罗来纳大学夏洛特分校心理学教授里奇.特德斯基认为，这种转变的感觉从某些方面看却是很典型的。里奇.特德斯基教授首创了“创伤后成长”一词。他对那些经历了诸如搏斗、暴力犯罪、突患重病等极端事件的人群进行

7

了研究，这些研究表明，在刚经历不幸后大多数人随即都会感到茫然和焦虑。他们一心想的就是，自己的生活完全被毁了。有少部分人事后很久了还不断被记忆问题、失眠以及类似的创伤后应激障碍所折磨。但特德斯基和其他学者发现，对很多人(可能甚至是绝大多数人)来说，生活最终会变得更加丰富和更加令人满足。

12 Something similar happens to many people who experience a terrifying physical threat. In that moment, our sense of invulnerability is pierced, and the self-protective mental armor that normally stands between us and our perceptions of the world is torn away. Our everyday life scripts-our habits, self-perceptions and assumptions-go out the window, and we are left with a raw experience of the world.

12许多经历过恐怖的人身威胁的人会遇到类似的情况。在事情发生的那一瞬间，我们的安全感被冲破了，平时处于我们与我们对世界的种种看法之间的自我保护的精神盔甲被剥离了。我们的日常生活轨迹(我们的习惯、自我认识和主观意念)全部被抛到九霄云外，只剩下对世界的原始体验。

13 Still, actually implementing these changes, as well as fully coming to terms with a new reality, usually takes conscious effort. Being willing and able to take on this process is one of the major differences between those who grow through adversity and those who are destroyed by it. The

8

people who find value in adversity aren't the toughest or the most rational. What makes them different is that they are able to incorporate what happened into the story of their own life.

13尽管如此，要实际实现这些转变并完全接受新的现实，通常需要有意识地付出努力。是否愿意并有能力承担这个过程，就是那些在灾难中成长和那些被灾难所摧毁的人之间主要的区别之一。认为灾难有价值的人并不是最坚强或最理性的人。使他们与众不同的是他们能够将所遭遇的事融入他们自己的人生历程中。”

14 Eventually, they may find themselves freed in ways they never imagined. Survivors say they have become more tolerant and forgiving of others, capable of bringing peace to formerly troubled relationships. They say that material ambitions suddenly seem silly and the pleasures of friends and family paramount-and that the crisis allowed them to recognize life in line with their new priorities.

14最终，他们可能会发现自己以从未想到过的方式获得了解脱。幸存者往往说他们变得更加宽容，也更能原谅别人，能够缓和原本糟糕的关系。他们说物质追求突然间变得很无聊，而朋友和家庭带来的快乐变得极为重要，他们还说危机使他们能够按照这些新的优先之事来重新认识生活。

9

15 People who have grown from adversity often feel much less fear, despite the frightening things they've been through. They are surprised by their own strength, confident that they can handle whatever else life throws at them. \wonderful,\were just trying to survive. But in retrospect, what they gained was more than they ever anticipated.\

15从灾难中成长起来的人尽管经历过恐怖的事情，但他们的恐惧感往往大为减少。他们对自己的力量感到吃惊，相信不管今后生活中将要遭遇什么，他们都能应付。特德斯基说:“人们不会说他们所经历的是美好的。他们并不是特意要通过这样的经历来成长。他们只是尽其所能生存下来。但回顾起来，他们的收获远远大于他们所预料的。

16 In his recent book Satisfaction, Emory University psychiatrist Gregory Berns points to extreme endurance athletes who push themselves to their physical limits for days at a time. They cycle through the same sequence of sensations as do trauma survivors: self-loss, confusion and, finally, a new sense of mastery. For ultramarathoners, who regularly run 100-mile races that last more than 24 hours, vomiting and hallucinating are normal. After a day and night of running without stopping or sleeping, competitors sometimes forget who they are and what they are doing.

10