alamitous: noun: being, causing, or accompanied by calamity

Source: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/calamitous

From: “Quicksand” by Nella Larsen, Chapter 24 – Page 157

“Helga nodded and tried unsuccessfully to make a little smile. She was glad of Miss Hartley’s presence. It would, she felt, protect her from so much. She mustn’t, she thought to herself, get well too fast. Since it seemed she was going to get well. In bed she could think, could have a certain amount of quiet. Of aloneness. In that period of racking pain and calamitous fright Helga had learned what passion and credulity could do to one.”

From this passage, we can see that a period of chaos has allowed Helga to learn more life lessons.