Sunday, November 12, 2017
PTSD in WWI Soldiers
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder- or PTSD- is a mental health condition that is triggered by either experiencing or witnessing a traumatic event. Psychologists first involvement with this disorder was in fact, during World War I. At the time, the term for the condition was "Shell shock." This phenomenon first appeared in British medical journals shortly after the war started. Doctors noted a similarity in different patients who had each been exposed to exploding shells. The first patient endured six shells exploding around him; the second patient was buried alive for 18 hours after a shell collapsed a trench, and the third patient had been blown off a high pile of bricks. All three men exhibited symptoms of "reduced visual fields," which means that they had loss of smell, taste, and some loss of memory. At the time, doctors believed this condition was a physical injury due to exploding shells. As the war progressed and medical professionals saw more soldiers with similar symptoms, they began to question the diagnoses. Doctors wondered how soldiers with different injuries could display similar symptoms. In order to combat this, many doctors tried extreme treatments such as solitary confinement, electric shock therapy, and even shaming some soldiers. More patient doctors utilized treatments such as hypnosis, massage, and special diets, but none of the treatments were very effective. The reason for this was that people viewed "shell shock" as a physical injury, when in fact, it was a condition that was rooted in one's mind. The reason many people thought it was a physical injury was because of the physical effects. Patients often experienced shaking, paralysis, seizures, and sleep deprivation. Although the symptoms were often physical, the cause for them was in the brain. At the end of the war, over 80,000 cases had passed through medical facilities with symptoms of shell shock. However, most people had a lack of sympathy for these victims and viewed their symptoms as a sign of cowardice or weakness. As medical research progressed, doctors came to the conclusion that it was not a physical injury they were dealing with, but rather a mental illness. At this point, doctors could not do much other than prescribing medicine, so therapists and counselors were appointed to work with these soldiers. Over time, more information and data was gained about the condition and it was no longer considered "shell shock," but rather Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. The reason for this being, that people who were not in the military experienced this disorder as well. As people grew more accepting and understanding of this mental illness, methods of dealing with PTSD have become a lot more ethical and involve treatments such as therapy, stress training, and some doctors prescribe medication rather than assaulting patients. Today, PTSD is still extremely common amongst veterans and active soldiers. Luckily, with the knowledge gained from past events such as WWI, it is much easier to care for those in need of help.
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I believe you informed some very important about PTSD in WWI soldiers and would like to add on that the famous Psycho Analysis, Sigmund Freud referred to this term of shell shock as "war neuroses". In his book, Freud explains his conceptualization of war neuroses as brought by between soldier's "war egos" and "peace egos". That the old ego protects itself when faced with immediate danger by transferring into traumatic neuroses in defending itself against the newly forming ego of war.
ReplyDeleteThis is a good point to remember the fact that what we know today was not the same in the past, and people in the past did not know what these disorders were. I can relate this to the book "Just Mercy" where a Vietnam veteran who went through trauma after war, could not help his actions where he had to protect everything and did not listen to anybody. He had loved a nurse, but to gain her love he set up a bomb in her front yard and wanted to show he's protecting her, but instead it killed a kid. He was then placed on death row and later executed, but his lawyer did not say anything about his mental health or military services. This relates to PTSD where the lawyers did not know or care about this mans disorders because they did no know any better.
ReplyDeleteYou did very good explaining PTSD and how soldiers are affected by this mental illness. I agree with you on the idea that soldiers who suffer from PTSD were looked up as people shouldn't have sympathy for them. Unfortunately some of those soldiers are shown a lack of sympathy in today's world and some today have realized the mental illness is something serious that must be dealt with.
ReplyDeleteIn addition to not only PTSD, but also every other mental illnesses discovered out there, many people, even doctors can misdiagnose a mental illness as something else and never be able to effectively treat the illness. Science and technology has greatly improved over the last couple decades but it's still rather hard to determine a lot of the causes to the mental illnesses people have been suffering through. Lots of the symptoms were and are still pretty similar, an example being schizophrenia and drug (such as LSD) abuse and getting hallucinations. These similar symptoms make it harder to identify, therefore giving a misdiagnosis, like how the doctors in the past saw PTSD as a physical injury at the beginning rather than a mental illness.
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