(God, Brovo, you're my hero.)

If you wanted to keep a character as close to real life as possible, think about their upbringing and personality before the tragedy/tragedies. People react to events with vastly different long-term effects. Age, experience, personality and early-taught mannerisms will always alter their perception on events. A character who’d been taught to always fend for herself will react to a tragedy of loss of family much more differently than a more sheltered character, a child will respond to abuse and be affected by it long-term differently than an adult. Instinct may shift. They could flinch or stand with their back to walls always, more subtly; or develop a phobia, odd interest in unorthodox things, or temper at the more obvious. Humans are funny creatures. A character will always feel much more organic with a quirk or two, a strange, unhealthy fetish, an addiction, a fear of separation/whatever. A lot of the people on My Strange Addiction have clinical depression, anxiety, past trauma such as death of family members or even abuse. Where does your tragic character find comfort? Do they utterly stifle emotions associated with their past or harness them?