Background: Earthquake, as a natural disaster, is considered to be one of the traumatic events. Considering the concept of trauma and two consequences of the earthquake (namely stress and growth), the present study aimed to delve into the 16-year post-earthquake living experience of adult female Bam earthquake’s survivors and its relationship with their current lives.Methods: This qualitative study was carried out in 2018, in which the interpretive phenomenological analysis method was adopted, and in-depth semi-structured interviews were run. In this study, six 22-34-year-old adult female survivors in the age range of 6-18 years at the time of the Bam Earthquake (2007) were selected using the purposive sampling method. Moreover, thematic analysis was used to extract the themes.Results: The participants’ lives could be depicted using the following themes: life before the earthquake, the moment of the earthquake, the first days after the earthquake, back to life, fear, regret, and excellence after the trauma.Conclusion: According to the findings, the pre-earthquake life and post-earthquake social support, including the same identity of the earthquake (e.g., Bam) survivors, are the significant dimensions making the tolerance of the earthquake experience possible. Moreover, the proximal experiences of fear and regret, as common orientations of traumatized individuals towards the future and the past, were also reflected in this study. Furthermore, all the participants reported Post-Traumatic Growth (PTG) experiences in their current personality, indicating the intertwined relationship between traumatic injury and trauma tolerance. This study's findings would provide researchers and practitioners with a deeper understanding of the same population's strengths and weaknesses. Policymakers are recommended to include supporting policies for earthquake survivors’ resilience in their public health plans.
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