Character Question

I read a book recently where a character was hung up on One Tragic Event that ruled his life. The scarred Viet Nam vet, the woman who had a child die, the cop who lost a partner seems to be a staple in story characters. There motivation after that is ruled by that one event. Sometimes they crawl in a bottle, sometimes they withdraw from life, sometimes they limp along through life. They are emotional cripples.

I'm not making fun of that concept because I think there are a lot of people who have a tragic event that dominates their lives, be it a death of divorce or accident. Or am I wrong about that? Do people heal from it? How do they do that? In books, it is often that they save another child or a new partner, isn't it? How do people get stuck on one event in their lives while other people do not? I've been reading some series in which in every single book the main character gets tortured or hurt, emotionally and/or physically and it has become a problem to read it because I start thinking if all that had happened to me, I'd be afraid to get out of bed at the very least or in a mental institution.

But back to the One Tragic Event. Is there another way to deal with this other than the redemptive event?