To Jennie -- "PTSD teaches us to avoid stuff so we don't get triggered into a panic attack"
You can't always avoid stuff. Some of it blindsides you. My first therapist tried to tell me that I had to be more careful and watch out for things that would/could hurt me. HOW??? I can't spend my whole life tring to avoid triggers. You'd end up living in a paranoid frenzy, constantly anticipating the worst. From a quality of life standpoint, that'd be hell.

Obsids -- "that which does not kill me, just lingers to torment me so long as I continue to live. "
AMEN!!! Oh, AMEN, brutha! Can I get a "right on?!!"

"So I guess we are strong because we have survived? "
Presumably. But you can't ignore that we're also more injured. Dr Phil puts it this way -- he said that when you've been hurt, it's as though you have a sensitive spot. Like when you've been burned, and the spot is always sensitive afterwards. When someone/something triggers us, it's like they've hit our sensitive spot. It doesn't scab over and become a stronger area. I don't think we do, either, emotionally. All I know is that the accumulated hurts of a lifetime make me feel like I can't take any more. I feel weaker, not stronger. I told my first analyst that I felt like I'd been a mugging victim, (emotionally) beaten to a pulp and left in an alley to die. I said that I thought it would take me a long time before I could get back up and rally. At this point, I feel like I've been weakened by so many attacks, and I feel less & less able to take each new beating that comes along. I'm just too (emotionally) exhausted, now, to get back up.