A century ago, people with symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) were sometimes institutionalized for life or treated with frightening operations such as frontal lobotomies.
Imagine taking a medication meant to heal you only to discover that the drug rotted your bones, made your teeth fall out, and filled you with a radioactive element called radium.
When terrorists attacked the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, Cassie McCauley watched in horror from her classroom on the New Jersey side of the Hudson River.