What is posttraumatic growth?

Not everyone suffers from PTSD or other impairments in ability to function following trauma and only a minority develop PTSD. Some may even have transcendent experiences or find meaning in suffering. In the days following the experience of psychological trauma, individuals may have at minimum subclinical symptoms or brief reactive symptoms (less intense or temporary symptoms than would be associated with PTSD), though they may have no long-term resulting functional impairment. In time, a certain percentage of people exposed to traumatic events ultimately experience positive changes. These individuals are said to have experienced posttraumatic growth.