Does extreme suffering truly make you mentally stronger over time?

[jennifer_bloom]

I had the worst terror regarding human oppression ever at 19 and after that I lost all fear of human beings and had no fear at all while receiving regular death threats by a mentally ill man online.

[Phunk_Fenomenon]

I don’t think suffering automatically makes people mentally stronger. Sometimes it does, but sometimes it just leaves people traumatized, emotionally exhausted, unhealthy, or disconnected from themselves and as a person who suffers from CPTSD from all the hell I was forced to go through during my childhood and teen days I think I should know.

After all we humans aren’t Pokémon that level up after every battle. Constant stress and pain can again seriously dysregulate your mental, emotional, and even physical health over time.

What actually matters is whether someone has support, recovery, meaning, and a way to process what happened. Without that, suffering can just break people down instead of building them up.