Jessica Garfield trusted her friend. She'd hung out in groups with him before. They worked together in the same Army unit in Alaska.

They were drinking in her room, a weekend ritual in the barracks. Winters were long, and the base was in the middle of nowhere.

Garfield was tired after a week of overtime. She fell asleep while they watched a movie.

She awoke to find her pants around her ankles. The man was smearing something liquid on her lips. She felt sick, and fled to the bathroom. She realized she'd been raped.

Garfield didn't report it. In the days following, she had panic attacks. She kept trying to rip her lips off.

"I told a few of the guys I knew I could trust," she said. "They wanted to kill him."

A motor sergeant called her in to ask about the rumors he'd heard, and a female sergeant sat in. Garfield didn't feel like talking.

When she got home, there was a message from the rapist on her answering machine.

"He said he was sorry and wanted to talk," Garfield said.

"I lost it. I looked for friends but couldn't find any. I called the female sergeant."

She held Garfield’s hand and told her women often don't report rape because they don't want to repeat their story over and over. They talked late into the night. Together, they went to the military police and filed a report.

The sergeant, Garfield’s Army friends, and later, her doctor became her lifeline.

Her panic attacks got worse, and depression and nightmares started. She couldn't stand to be in tight places. She couldn't put a glass to her lips to drink. She couldn't use lip balm or lipstick. She talked to herself.

The Army gave her a driver to take her to counseling appointments. Her counselor worked on techniques to allow her to drink from a glass.

Her best friend was a godsend. "I could call him in the middle of the night when I was having a panic attack, and he'd be there. I'd hyperventilate, or dig my nails into my palms, and he'd say, ‘He’s not worth it. He’s not worth losing air over.’

"I'm really lucky I had such a good support team," Garfield said.

Reaching for help is unthinkable for many people who have PTSD. Although Garfield sought people out, she was stunned by the diagnosis.

"I never believed in PTSD," Garfield said. "I thought it was just another label. I was wrong."

Her diagnosis came from a VA doctor who was treating Garfield for pain from a sternum fracture she had years before in basic training.

She’s in counseling for PTSD and attends support groups for pain management and military sexual trauma. She takes five medicines, for pain, PTSD, and depression. She was medically discharged from the Army in 2005.

Garfield feels she’s making progress, and when she has bad days, she e-mails her doctor. She’s getting better at drinking from a glass and can wear lipstick again.

"Sometimes I'll have a day off, and I'll be in my pajamas all day," she said. "I'll go in and put lipstick on, and it’s a thumbs up for me."

She recently found the courage to tell her longtime boyfriend about the rape, which happened in 2004.

He hugged her one day, and she broke down.

"I told him, ‘I haven't cheated on you. It happened to me. It’s been hard to tell you, because I didn't want to relive it. But I'm getting help.’

"We were tired, and we had been drinking. I blamed myself for a long time."