What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

[Voltaic]

was it Niche who said that, or Kelly Clarkson? Despite who said it first, I think the saying may go back much further than the person who put their name to it. Most likely, the saying has been around for a long while, and for good reason.

It makes me think. Despite the popularity of the saying, by quite a few, it is easily dismissed, and rightfully so. A car crash may not kill, but paralyze. One may live through a traumatic experience to live and tell the tail, but carry scars from the event for the rest of their life, and I do think it is accurate in many cases that what didn't kill you also doesn't make you stronger.

My mindset going through life was around the idea that the saying was bull. What didn't kill me left me drained damaged and vulnerable for whatever 'character building' event would happen next. It felt like being beaten down every time I got back up from my last stagger downwards. It felt demoralizing to stand only to fall again after again, In what it seems to be a relentless cycle of the world including myself using me as a punching bag.

Though I centered my thoughts around the idea of falling over and over and over, but haven't given much attention to the fact that one has to rise in order to fall. I have taken a hell of a beating, yet time and time after again, I stand up to my next beating, to fall only to rise again.

Through it all, I remain here typing this forum post. My head aches, and my eyes strain over my bright screen dimmed as much as possible, tea cup horrendously empty, but I feel fine. Compared to many times before, how I feel now despite the boredom and all that is still wrong with my life, would be a blessing during other times when I am not so lucky to feel as content. From those turbulent times, I have risen to at least where I am now.

Think at what you may have gone through. I don't know who would be reading this now, nor what they have gone through in life, but I believe everyone has their struggles that have helped define them. Think of how you felt then, compared to how you are now. How far off the cold hard rock bottom have you risen from? How many times have you been knocked off your feet, to find yourself back to feeling at least okay with the current moment? If you made it through all that, what else are you capable of with the strength that has dragged you from those depths to where you are now?

What doesn't kill you may very well hurt all the same. One could argue in times of desperation what doesn't kill you may as well have. To live through all that, now having to face the immensity of all the struggles still yet to come, now with the baggage of what you have gone through to bear up this unending mountain. What didn't kill you, made your life a hell of a lot harder.

Is it really the case that hardships always have to be a bad thing? The baggage makes you heavy, but just as you have done before, getting back on your feet with that added weight serves to make you stronger than without it. Although, one has to be able to find themselves back on their feet holding the weight up.

Are you weak for feeling the weight of that baggage, or strong for holding it up as long as you did?

At the end, I feel if weather the saying 'what doesn't kill you makes you stronger' is bull or not, comes up to your mindset on what didn't kill you. Do you look back at yesterday in horror, knowing that being the same person, the past still could be your future? Or do you look back to realize and see how far you have come? Do you look back and see the times that have brought you to your knees, or when you have risen back up from them? Are your hardships only going to hurt you, or can you see the opportunities to grow through the experience? Do you have faith in your strength that has given you what you still have today? Because despite it all, you are still here, and I bet, if you see everything around you, looking at the moment, free from what has been and what could be, you can realize that things are alright.

 

[Streetwise]

Trigger (May come 3/4 of the way down the paragraph) warning !!!!!!I think what the OP is the talking about, is what I experience and what I have experienced in the last 13 years.
living with panic disorder is very strange ,it does make you incredibly strong for a certain period! of time and then when it ends you are sucked dry.But the second after the hyperventilating stops (when I was in the period where I hyperventilated a lot )I always said I’m alive, you can be in terrible pain but because of the panic you just don’t feel it, why it makes your bones stronger if you break it and! it (apart from osteosarcoma and ulcers)!heals !,I don’t know, to my logic, if you break something, it would make it weaker! but in nature it appears that if you have a certain chemical make up ,your bone will be stronger.

 

[onlything]

I think that this saying was, at first at least, told in spite. 'I refuse to let this event break me' kind of way. 'I will come out of it stronger and show it, show everyone'. Maybe in anger or just in a mocking way as in 'Hah, sure, it will make me stronger'. I think it's more of a potential life philosophy than a universal truth, something similar to, for example, 'Sticks and stones can break my bones but words will never hurt me'. It's more about a choice between standing up to what happened or letting the event determine you, between floating and drowning. A statement, if you wish.

 

[Trophonius]

It's Nietzsche misquoted.

The belief "what doesn't kill you make you stronger" precedes Nietzsche by far, and it was and is (unfortunately) very common among society.

In Nietzsche's case, he refers to it in the chapter Maxims and Arrows from The Twilight of the Idols. The whole chapter is devoted to present many beliefs that are common in society, and we could argue that this beliefs makes them feel better to some extent during some circumstances, but are false and they need to be "pierced" (with an arrow) - this is, shown that while superficially pleasant they are false.

The full aphorism is "Out of life's school of war: What does not destroy me, makes me stronger". He's rather referring to the military mindset used to control others (in particular, people by their government in times of war) that made his way into everyday society. This is a way of thinking of which he is very critical in several writings.

(Serious) Hardships by themselves don't make anyone stronger, but weak, lost, depressed, alone, sometimes to the point of suicide.

 

[unperson]

I'm simply amazed. The shock, the horror, the fun, the disappointment, when does it ever end.

 

[Wolfnox]

Serious) Hardships by themselves don't make anyone stronger, but weak, lost, depressed, alone, sometimes to the point of suicide.

Ive lived threw things that drove my sanity the edge and came very close to killing me. I fought for my sanity and life. The will to live was made stronger by these events. I do still suffer from damage they left behind. But press forward in life. Your will and inner strength does grow from these events. Wither you face it alone or with help. If you dont have the will power to push forward. Then the battle is already lost for any hardship you may face.

 

[Xerces Blue]

I'm with the @Wolf Prince here.
It's not so much the hardship that makes you stronger it's how you deal with it.
simplified (cutting out steps) this matches the paraphrase.

One should consider what "strength" is materially speaking it breaks down into several subjects.
Hardness/Flexibility
Ductility
how it responds to heat and the lack there of.

Strength of character isn't so much invulnerable as it is more along the lines of able to recover after damage.

 

[clg114]

I first heard that from a drill instructor in Army basic training. Many years ago.

 

[Judge]

One thing that always fascinated me was that Hitler somehow managed not to directly incorporate much of anything Friedrich Nietzsche wrote about. Weird to ponder whether adapting some of Nietzsche might have polished up Hitler's act a bit. Though clearly many of his supporters seemed to relish his unpolished demeanor in the first place. But then Hitler seemed single-minded over his ideological mentor, Dietrich Eckhart. And a limited "bromance" with Benito Mussolini. And Social Darwinism comes into the equation as well, although not specified.

Go figure.

In this instance I think Nietzsche had a point. That perhaps more often than not, real perseverance inevitably depends on real suffering and struggle. Richard Nixon could also be quoted over a similar dynamic:

"Only if you have been in the deepest valley, can you ever know how magnificent it is to be on the highest mountain."

Such sentiments stand to reason...

 

[Aspychata]

I am held together with duct tape at this point. But duct tape is incredibly strong and resilient. So l carry it around in my emotional toolbox at all times. There is no time for me to fall down and pick myself back up.

I just look for the complete moments of contentment. A day watching birds, a hour reading a book, and all the simple pleasures life allows us.

Maturity comes easier and quicker now in my decisions and l need to think less about things. I have cycled through much sadness and happiness in my lifetime so l now look foward to the aging part because l am less needed in other people's drama, that is freedom.

 

[GrownupGirl]

I remember on the Simpsons when Homer suffered a heart attack he said to Dr. Hibbert while in the hospital, "What doesn't kill me will make me stronger, right?" But the doctor told Homer he was really now weak as a kitten. And then Dr. Hibbert started throwing some jabs at Homer in a playful fashion, and Homer's like "Quit it!" and tries to swing back at him, and Dr. Hibbert says, "Aw you swing like a girl." Nice.

 

[Bronzelincolns]

the phrase is better understood when death is understood as something other than physical.

"a coward dies 1000 times. one who is brave only dies once".

 

[Trophonius]

One thing that always fascinated me was that Hitler somehow managed not to directly incorporate much of anything Friedrich Nietzsche wrote about. Weird to ponder whether adapting some of Nietzsche might have polished up Hitler's act a bit. Though clearly many of his supporters seemed to relish his unpolished demeanor in the first place. But then Hitler seemed single-minded over his ideological mentor, Dietrich Eckhart. And a limited "bromance" with Benito Mussolini. And Social Darwinism comes into the equation as well, although not specified.

They tried. By that time Nietzsche was dead, but her Nazi sister modified and published Nietzsche's unpublished manuscripts (The Will to Power) to align them in favor of the Nazi ideology. She wanted to make of Nietzsche of "official" philosopher of the Third Reich, and to some extent succeeded, some of Nietzsche's aphorism became the motto of Nazi camps for the young (in particular, "what doesn't kill you make you stronger was one of them"). At some point Hitler visited Nietzsche's museum, operated by her sister, and later went to her funeral.

Interesting read: How the Nazis Hijacked Nietzsche, and How It Can Happen to Anybody

 

[Judge]

They tried.

And inevitably failed.

Much as did the internal political agendas of various notable personalities of the National Socialist Party. All preempted by Hitler's "Führerprinzip".

Where Hitler officially had the last, undisputed word in all considerations of National Socialist ideology.

 

[tree]

REMINDER:

For Political topics, please use Politics Discussion

 

[Xerces Blue]

I first heard that from a drill instructor in Army basic training. Many years ago.

Same source for me and the experiences of my life have shown it to be true for me.