The Postwar Attitude Adjustment - NYTimes.com I have P.T.S.D. from a violent sexual assault at the hands of strangers. I spent a long time dismissing the idea that pain can make you a better person. Around 2003, I was involved in a study with the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto. I began thinking about rape as if it were an earthquake or a flood: it took away everything I had when I was too young to realize I had anything at all. But what was important was what I built out of the rubble ­ - that was what mattered more than the event itself. Today, I sleep soundly, I have successful long-term friendships and relationships with family and I haven't had a panic attack in four years. I hope to see the kind of training in this article make its way to those of us who fought solo wars on different fronts. LAUREN JANE PENNEY, Toronto, posted on nytimes.com