Ptsd And Our Ancestors

I've been thinking about PTSD and our ancestors. A few years back a young fella from our town that served in the middle east committed suicide. It got me to wondering about civil war veterans, ww1, ww2 korea, viet nam etc. My father in law was a ww2 veteran. other than binge drinking now and then he didn't seem affected by the war but it is hard to say he never talked about it.

A friend was a door banger in Iraq. He doesn't seem affected. He claims they were trained to react and that training affected the way they were affected.

There is a term called shell shock, I think that's from ww1 and ww2 .

All this got me wondering about civil war veterans. Did they get PTSD?

 

Shell shock and PTSD are very similar. Many of our WW I and II along with others who fought had to deal with this very thing, just doctors didn't have that terminology.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell_shock

 

Good evening Randy,

Yes, if the trauma event isn't properly addressed by individual, the disorder kicks in.

Those Civil War veterans who had support systems, eg an extended family to correspond with, drinking partners at the encampment, addressed the initial event and safe from PTSD.

For those without mechanisms to address PTSD, it occurred.

There are some books, "scholarly" articles and veterans magazine articles within the VA umbrella that's into this stuff. I vaguely recall one of the New England VA medical centers specializes in PTSD. It's where the best subject-matter library is located.

 

https://www.ptsd.va.gov/about/index.asp

Randy; Addendum to my above rambling.

Above link also cross-references to other material.

Don't know where their research center at White River Junction, Vermont is actually at. Tavarish Uncle Bernie Sanders can assist.

 

Devil Anse was a civil war veteran, I wonder if he was affected.

I met a guy that was involved in debriefing during viet nam . I always thought that was a intelligence gathering thing. He claimed no, it was to evaluate the mental state. He was a psychiatrist in profession after the war.

 

Shell shocked is from learning to react to incoming rounds at a very fast speed . It doesn't take long for this to be a natural reaction to certain sounds such as the whistling of a shell approaching in the air or a loud explosion like bang . Watching war shows it is obvious to me the actors have no idea how fast someone moves under fire . I was shell shocked for years even after returning from Nam . A loud bang and I would be diving for cover . Time is what it took to get out of this war time survival mode . ---Ptsd was never heard of until the desert wars . I am not saying there is not some legitimate cases but no doubt getting a monthly government check claiming to have Ptsd is the leading motivator for this to become a fad amongst ex combat soldiers .

 

If God "loves" you, you will end up shell-shocked. The MOST dangerous prayer to pray, "God, make me wise."

Pray that spiritually suicidal prayer and you'll leave this life cursing your Creator. You'll sh## your soul. "Love" has that effect.


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i am most sure that in every war even in like roman, greek and persian days there was PTSD heck...even cain who slew abel showed a bit of a sign of it by worrying(paranoia) about others that might come after him for killing abel...

 

Here's the deal. Most often in war, we are talking men killing men. There are unimaginably horrid examples of women and children getting blown apart. Soldiers having to deal with unintended civilian casualties is the proximal cause of a whole lot of PTSD.

If some man goes aggressive against me, I will reflexively kill him. Killing a dog affects the heart more than taking-out something vile that has been referred to as a "human". I once finished my lunch watching a young man die.

Watching children writhe to death, now that is another matter.
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Pre 18th century, warfare were fought by fighting shoulder to shoulder alongside your brother in arm. And you can see the your opponent during the approach / march, thus giving the combatant enough time for mental acclimation. Furthermore fighting shoulder to shoulder (in battle line) provide some moral / mental support just by having your fellow brother in arm marching & fighting alongside you (more so if your in a regimental unit)

By 18th century the nature of warfare began to change to a more "skirmishing" albeit battle line formation were still the mainstream norm for major engagement up to the late 19th century.

 

Good afternoon Varuna,

Viking boarding parties had mental acclimation ? ...... or perhaps a combination of Harvey's Bristol Cream and some pharma ?

 

PTSD is a very individual illness. Every day in the USA at least 24 veterans commit suicide. Much of it related to PTSD. I dealt with my own PTSD and learned to deal with it. But I came from a time when you were expected to suck it up and drive on. I've never met a combat vet that didn't admit the experience didn't change him. It is just how much it changes them and what they do to cope with what they survived.

Taking human life isn't as natural as the movies would have you believe.

Three of my brothers committed suicide. Surviving is hard. Living can be harder.

Dale

 

I would agree that every soldier that was ever in battle throughout the ages had some form of PTSD. Shell Shock was just what they called it before they came up with an official diagnosis, and a new name.

Way back when in my bartending days I had a regular customer who was a WW2 pilot. The more he drank the more the stories came out. I was happy to listen, but he was releasing in his own way. Back then we still called it shell shock, but I could see it had been a painful experience that he needed to talk about.

 

Pot is good for memory loss. Therapists are having group therapy sessions where the guys talk about the bad sh## they've been through while smoking dope. Seems to help. Memories do not plague them at a level they had been. Talk about medicinal marijuana!

 

OG, I don't want to forget what I did and saw. Our scars are what make us who we are and there is no way to selectively choose what memories are lost and what memories you retain. If I forget my buddy dying I might also forget sitting in a Bangkok bar playing a game of smiles with my buddies and laughing our asses off as guys lost.

If I forget my brothers, they are lost to me. I couldn't live with that.

Dale

 

Yo Dale, pot ain't THAT potent. I think -- and I didn't read this, just my impression -- that the overall beneficial aspect is that is "knocks the edge off" what is digging in to some folk.

And everybody is wired different to the next person. One person will develop life-destroying PTSD having seen a fraction of what another person has seen but who does not suffer psychological harm affecting their ongoing life. It's all about chemistry and neurotransmitters. There's a heavy genetic component to PTSD. And then there's the folk who just don't have any feelings, period -- they can put their cigarette out in the eye socket of a dead baby.

As a kid, I smoked dope for a few years. Then, I started getting a bit paranoid -- f___ that! Quit. I toked up a few times a week, but really would get "wrecked" -- we're not talking about a joint or two. And I had friends who were dealers (none of us used anything addictive, some friends were heavy into LSD, not me). Three folk I knew well in high school, one a good friend, killed themselves. I knew six suicides, but the three others, I didn't party with. These folk went on to harder drugs. I knew five or more who ended up in psych wards. A dealer friend of mine (pot & acid) got a friend of his off heroin. My friend ended up becoming a computer systems engineer in the N.Carolina research triangle -- met him years later and he'd turned into a royal sh##. I believe that I did some harm to my memory capabilities, but not so much as to do harm to me academically. I sure wouldn't smoke any more dope.

Pot is not as safe as many would have one to believe, however if it can do some good for some psych patients, cancer patients taking chemo, and glaucoma patients, then let's use it as a medicine. Everyone knows that alcohol abuse kills FAR more effectively than pot. See "ETOH abuse" on a 50+ yr old patient's medical record = liver, brain, kidney, ..., damage. And if that person smokes, add throat cancer.
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