I thought there was recent evidence that shellshock actually was pretty distinct from modern ptsd, where ptsd is psychological and shell shock was just nearby artillery mechanically disconnecting your brain cells
FWIW, I dated a psychologist for a while, and we talked about this specific monologue.
She primarily worked with sexual abuse victims, but spent a lot of time veterans as well. Her focus was PTSD, and talk therapy is really effective for PTSD.
Her opinion was, in world war 1, They didn't really have the psychologic or physical frameworks to really distinguish. Certainly, some people had mechanical damage, like football players. Certainly, some people really had a hard time experiencing the horrors of war. They just didn't really know.
Calling it shell shock, that helped some of the veterans. Helped them sorta get that they're not alone. People have dealt with this for a long time.
Rape victims, shell shock isn't a great name. For a lot of reasons.
It's kinda about recognizing that this trauma is a real thing, there's nothing wrong with you. This is a normal reaction, everyone goes through it. Some people need a little help finding their way back to normal.
In retrospect it’s likely that a lot of the people diagnosed with “shell shock” would today have been diagnosed with traumatic brain injury rather than (or possibly in addition to) PTSD.
It's important to note that WW1 was very different from preceding wars; people spent weeks, months in the trenches, always on edge for incoming artillery or chemical attacks. The only thing that comes close is sieges from back when, which were its own kind of shit.
She primarily worked with sexual abuse victims, but spent a lot of time veterans as well. Her focus was PTSD, and talk therapy is really effective for PTSD.
Her opinion was, in world war 1, They didn't really have the psychologic or physical frameworks to really distinguish. Certainly, some people had mechanical damage, like football players. Certainly, some people really had a hard time experiencing the horrors of war. They just didn't really know.
Calling it shell shock, that helped some of the veterans. Helped them sorta get that they're not alone. People have dealt with this for a long time.
Rape victims, shell shock isn't a great name. For a lot of reasons.
It's kinda about recognizing that this trauma is a real thing, there's nothing wrong with you. This is a normal reaction, everyone goes through it. Some people need a little help finding their way back to normal.