What Word Means the Opposite of Trauma?

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Oh, hi, this is Stephen from San Antonio.

Hi, Stephen. How you doing?

Well, it was a couple of months back, me and my wife were, we were talking about the whole experience in quarantine and how, you know, the kind of the whole world experienced the trauma at that time. And we’re like, the world needs something opposite of a trauma. And then we’re like, what’s opposite of a trauma? You know, we’re trying to think of words like, oh, it’s celebration, but it didn’t really seem to fit. We were figuring, you know, why not just call, you know, Grant Martha with the answers. They know everything about words. So we thought we’d give you a holler. In terms of the opposite of trauma, I don’t know, bliss. So let’s define trauma first, Martha. How would you define trauma?

Well, of course, I go back to the Greek origins and the idea of injury. It’s like injury or damage. And the way that you described it is really good, Stephen. During the pandemic, we were all, you know, as a world community, we were all damaged and injured in some way. But I’m trying to think of the opposite of that. So I just want to extend that, though, that damage leaves an imprint on our mind, our body, our emotions. Scars.

Yeah, and there’s a disruption to our personal sense of safety and stability and identity. And it’s not necessarily about one event. It could be a series of events. But I think the scarlessness, you know, the scarlessness of the opposite of trauma, I don’t know. Maybe healing is what we’re looking for. Can we just say like good trauma, bad trauma? We’re going to have to qualify it in that way?

Well, you’re on to something there because there is such a thing as the opposite of good stress. So we have stress and we have eustress, E-U-S-T-R-E-S-S. And this is a positive form of stress that instead of overwhelming us, energizes us, it motivates us, and it challenges us so that we grow and we achieve and we develop resilience. And so eustress, that E-U prefix, is a prefix that means good or well or normal. And you can hear that prefix in words like euphony, which means good sound.

So eutrauma?

Maybe, but I was suggesting eustress is possibly an almost antonym to trauma.

Yeah, I feel like eutrauma, it still has the trauma in there. It’s sort of like a scar, you know? You mentioned healing, Grant, and I’m thinking that if you’re healing, it’s going to leave a mark somehow. And if you’re talking about the opposite of trauma, you don’t even want the mark there. And that’s where I kind of think that you stress might, I don’t know, might work.

And what about harmonization?

Harmonization.

Yeah. So like bringing different parts of yourself in sync with each other and with the world around you and the relationships you have with other people. That does sound pretty good because if it is like a big, like an event or something that is, it is positive, it is a harmonizing moment.

Yeah, that one seems like pretty good as well. And it’s kind of poetic too, right?

Yeah, I think it is. I think it’s like the opposite is sort of like placid, you know, it’s like an undisturbed lake or something, an undisturbed body of water. And then, you know, I really think our listeners could help us out with this one, Grant. So we’re going to ask if you have a word that you feel is the opposite of trauma. And do put that care and time into it when you send it to us. Tell us why you think you have the right word for the opposite of trauma, and particularly in the way that Stephen described it, the trauma that we all had in the pandemic, this kind of group trauma that we shared.

So Stephen, I want to thank you for posing this question. And this is a really fantastic thought provoker.

Yeah, to be continued.

Yeah, to be continued.

Well, I look forward to hearing what everybody has to say and be curious to see if maybe different cultures or different languages have a word for that. And we just kind of don’t.

Absolutely.

Thank you so much.

Thanks, Stephen.

All right.

Y’all be cool.

Cheers.

You too. I’m very curious to hear what our listeners come up with. 877-929-9673 is the place to leave a voicemail or send your thoughts to us in email words@waywordradio.org.