After WWI many of the soldiers experienced major trauma. WWI soldiers were the first soldiers to be diagnosed with shell shock. Shell shock caused psychological damage because of long exposures to warfare. Shell shock happens for multiple reasons, but the main reason why it happened was that soldiers saw and felt things that would haunt them for the rest of their lives: being buried alive for 18 hours, multiple shells getting blown up around you, and getting blown off brick structures 15 or so feet high. Eventually, shell shock was diagnosed to be a mix between a psychological and physical injury to the brain. Shell shock was a disease that allowed people to get a wound stripe, which was a patch that the soldier wore on his uniform that signaled to others that he was wounded.
On a more positive note, many soldiers received homecoming celebrations that varied in size whether or not the soldiers fought in battle or not. Sometimes the soldiers didn't want any of the praise and instead just wanted to return to their old lives and try to forget about the war completely. Many soldiers received medals for various good deeds they did. Some of the metals people received were the soldiers metal which everyone who fought got, and the distinguished soldier metal which was given to soldiers who stood out in their units.
2 comments:
I find it interesting how an entire generation of young men came back from the war with long-lasting mental and physical issues. It brings up the concern of how they would go on with their lives. This is also a sort of major point in history in terms of mental illnesses, because a level of violence on this scale had never been seen before, and doctors/psychologists would have been scrambling to learn and understand the types and symptoms of these negative effects on soldiers.
In today's time, with no major wars in the near past, we still can commonly hear and read about PTSD and people who suffer from it. Looking back on the magnitude of WW1, it really makes you think about what society after the war must have been like.
I wonder how having PTSD might affect future generations, or the ease with which these soldiers wanted to return back to their old lives. How does PTSD affect raising a family, and the children of that family, and the children of those children?
Additionally, are there effective treatments for PTSD?
Post a Comment