I think the misconception that you might be having is that the stress is even manageable at all. When people go through trauma at this age to this degree, there is little to no chance of managing it.

It's like watching someone get injured in an accident and saying that if they had the opportunity to manage themselves better they could recovery without any lasting effects. Some accidents, no matter how well it's managed by patients or doctors, will still render the patient paralyzed. Not to mention that a worse but more likely outcome is that they don't make it out alive at all.

There is a survivorship bias here that is not seen on the surface. The reason why I am chronically ill is because the alternative in my situation is that I would be dead. You don't see the people who had endured trauma and died, because they don't come on Lemmy and comment.

The best possible outcome from the accident I was in that is my childhood, is that I came out of it alive, albeit physically and emotionally damaged.