Months and months have passed since Adriana La Cerva's ex fiance Christopher died. One day while walking to her car in Montclair right after her therapy session with Dr. Melfi, she saw an abandoned little female white dog. Physically, she looked identical to Cozette. The only difference is that this dog was abandoned: It was starved and dehydrated. Adriana La Cerva was even able to see how starved and dehydrated the dog was just by looking at it. As soon as Adriana saw the dog, she started crying a bucket of tears for two reasons: Because the dog was abandoned and alone and because the fact that it looked just look like Cozette started triggering her grief over the death of Cozette. Despite the fact that Christopher is dead, she still remembers the day when Cozette died like it was yesterday. She even remembers what happened afterwards when she gave him a Hazelden rehab pamphlet to attempt to help him with his drug addiction and the physical beating she took for doing this by Christopher causing her to develop a bruised face and a black eye.
Adriana La Cerva's decision was a no brainer for her: She picked up the dog, walked to her car and drove to the Krauzer's Food Store in Verona, New Jersey to get her little dog that she rescued a pack of dog food that she needed. Then, she walked back to her car from Krauszer's and drove to her home in Hackettstown, New Jersey. As soon as she stepped foot in the house, she rinsed the food bowl that she used to use for Cozette and poured some food into that bowl for her new little dog. As soon as the little dog saw Adriana La Cerva pour food into the bowl, she ran as quickly as she could to the food bowl and ate as if she had never eaten before because that is how badly starved she was. Then, Adriana La Cerva proceeded to sit down. While sitting down as she was watching her dog eat, she was feeling an incredibly overwhelming mix of emotions. She was happy to rescue this little dog, but her grief about Cozette got triggered which is now triggering the post traumatic stress from seeing Cozette dead murdered by Christopher and then getting beaten up by Christopher afterwards just for giving him a Hazelden rehab pamphlet for his heroin addiction, giving her a bruised face and a black eye. As she was remembering all of this, she started crying hysterically saying. She would feel this overwhelming mixture of emotions throughout the entire week and had nightmares all the time flashbacking to when Christopher murdered Cozette and when Christopher beat her up giving her a bruised face and a black eye shortly after taking the life of her own dog.
After a week of dealing with all of this, luckily 7 days after rescuing the little dog she had a therapy session with Dr. Melfi. Getting in her car, Adriana La Cerva drove from Hackettstown to Dr. Melfi's office. As she went into the building, she went into Dr. Melfi's waiting room to wait. When Dr. Melfi was ready, she walked to the waiting room and said "Adriana La Cerva." Dr. Melfi held her door open as Adriana La Cerva walked into Dr. Melfi's office. Immediately, Dr. Melfi saw that Adriana has been crying hysterically. Worried about her patient, Dr. Melfi asked "What's wrong?"
Adriana La Cerva said while in tears "Right after our therapy session last week, I rescued a little dog that looked just like Cozette, the dog I had that my late ex fiance Christopher murdered. I feel so happy because I rescued the little dog, but yet my grief for the death of Cozette is triggered. It is so complicated! Then, right after Cozette died I gave my late ex fiance a Hazelden rehab pamphlet because he desperately needed help for his drug addiction. As if killing Cozette wasn't enough, he beat me up shortly after killing her giving me a black eye and a bruised face. I keep getting nightmares about it every week."
Dr. Melfi asked Adriana La Cerva "Is the Prozac working?" Adriana replied "Yes, it is working."
Dr. Melfi then said "From all of the domestic abuse that you received by your late ex fiance for several years plus on top of that all of the other severe trauma you have endured, in addition to clinical depression you have PTSD. You most certainly are exhibiting symptoms of PTSD. Even your immense guilt over the death of your ex fiance Christopher Moltisanti is a symptom of your PTSD. Please do not be ashamed of yourself: You are the best patient that I have ever worked with. You should be so proud of yourself just for surviving! Give yourself the self compassion you need. Whenever you get a bout of clinical depression or PTSD or even both, let it all out. You have nothing to be ashamed of. In fact, I am already seeing improvement in the months that we have worked together and I know that I am going to see more and more improvement as the years go by. Adriana La Cerva, I cannot say how enough how proud I am of you."
Hearing what Dr. Melfi had to say made Adriana feel so good: She agrees with Dr. Melfi that she has PTSD. It just makes perfect sense, giving the symptoms that she has been talking about to Dr. Melfi. Now with the knowledge that she has PTSD, Adriana La Cerva feels liberated. Because now she can identify her PTSD symptoms and only get better and better. "Thank You So Much Dr. Melfi!" Adriana La Cerva exclaimed. For the first time ever during their therapy sessions, Adriana La Cerva smiled naturally. Because their therapy session was now over, Adriana La Cerva got up and walked out of Dr. Melfi's office to her car and drove back to her home in Hackettstown to take care of her dog