When Doctors Are Patients: Is There Such a Thing as “Posttraumatic Bliss”?

Download video file ^{(22.3MB, mp4)}

At age 74, something happened on my way to my retirement. That “something” was the return after 14 years of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. The disease, in combination with ultimately successful anticancer polypharmacy, led me to death's door. For whatever reason, I was strangely unafraid, and have found subsequently a sense of personal autonomy and freedom from having recovered and getting to live for at least a few more innings.

In a recently published philosophic reflection on American culture,[1] author Jennifer Michael Hecht says[2] “that almost dying can realign you in a way that is a positive incarnation of trauma: posttraumatic bliss.” She is referring to cancer survivors who found unexpected happiness associated with their new-found appreciation of each day of life with relative health. I had never considered “bliss” as something that I would encounter from a bout with cancer, but her explanation of it continues to ring true. I have become convinced in the past few months that many others have experienced this same posttraumatic bliss after serious illness or disability.

For me as a patient, it has been a great gift; I only wish that, as a physician, I had learned earlier of the lesson so well-encapsulated in this term “posttraumatic bliss,” which succinctly connotes the upside of otherwise negative situations. This perspective and advice is magnified in the best-selling book by Randy Pausch.[3] It comes down to encouraging our patients to live every day fully and not fearing the death that awaits each of us, an enviable state referred to as posttraumatic bliss. At least that's my opinion! I would love to hear yours!

I'm Roger Bulger, Internist and retired President of the Association of Academic Health Centers.