Monday, February 8, 2010
PTSD and World War I
PTSD probably affected many soldiers in world war 1. Many of them witnessed horrible deaths of their fellow soldiers and many other traumatic events such as bombings. Witnessing these kind of events are the main cause of PTSD. With so much firsthand experience to death, it is no wonder how many soldiers are getting PTSD. Also back then, medical help for veterans with PTSD was much more limited than it is today. So, it probably lasted longer for them than it would for a veteran with PTSD today. Trench Warfare was epecially brutal as once you left the trench, chances are you would not come back.
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I agree on most of your points and how many soldiers have PTSD from World War 1, but the only thing that I question is your statement of how medical help was more limited than it is today, so they would have it longer that today. Even though the medical help was limited back then, I don't understand how it would affect the duration of their PTSD. The only help that they can get for PTSD were psychiatrists and it doesn't really have to do with medical intelligence. But overall, I agree will all of your other points of about the relation of World War 1 and PTSD.
ReplyDeleteI can kind of see what you're saying about the PTSD "lasting longer" back then than it does now. Less was known about PTSD in the 1900s compared to what we know about it today. It didn't even have a proper name, and people thought it was caused by the heavy artillery so they named it shell shock. How I interpreted what you said was that less people were knowledgeable about PTSD, and it probably went untreated for a long time because both the victims and the doctors didn't recognize what it was. Although PTSD isn't necessarily curable, the effects of it would definitely be helped by treatment, and the veterans in WWI didn't have that much access to this type of treatment.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Natalie's point that PTSD is not necessarily curable but as she said treatments would and could really aid in the process of recovering from PTSD. Also at that time WWI men did not really know off PTSD so they would not know how to treat something they do not know anything about, so I disagree with your statement "it probably lasted longer for them than it would for a veteran with PTSD today" since they did not know what PTSD was, or they had very little knowledge.
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