What is post traumatic stress disorder? Have soldiers always gotten PTSD?

Bad things happen in the world. Really bad things—you know what they are. I don’t have to list them. For people who have to see and live through the world’s darkest moments, the pain doesn’t always end when the moment’s over. It might recur in their heads every day.

That’s called post traumatic stress disorder. It’s “an anxiety disorder that can develop after exposure to a terrifying event or ordeal in which grave physical harm occurred or was threatened. Traumatic events that may trigger PTSD include violent personal assaults, natural or human-caused disasters, accidents, or military combat” according to the National Institute of Mental Health.

This isn’t your Daddy’s drinking buddy from Nam who gets hammered and talks about “charlies in the trees” or asks you if you’ve ever killed a man. People with PTSD have persistent memories of terrible things they’ve seen. They can become emotionally detached, irritable or violent. Some people have flash backs, reliving the event that triggered the problem.

I’ve known at least two people with PTSD, and let me tell you, it sucks. Both of these guys are veterans of the U.S.’s ongoing war in Iraq. To me, they’re regular guys who at times have a “hard time relating to civilian life,” but to their families, they’re distant.

So, I started wondering: have soldier’s always gotten PTSD? Are they just another of the billions of casualties of war over history? Or is this a new phenomenon, brought on by modern warfare or society?

First of all, not all combat soldiers develop PTSD. About 1 in 8 of the soldiers returning from Iraq reported symptoms of PTSD in a 2004 study by the U.S. Army (keep in mind that’s an Army study on an Army problem).

Medical literature on the PTSD-like symptoms from soldiers dates back to the U.S. Civil War (1861-1865). “The term, post traumatic stress disorder, was coined in 1980 as research into the condition began in earnest following the Vietnam War,” according to NetWellness.

That leads me to believe that the history of PTSD in soldiers dates back to the history of war in society. The oldest known evidence of warfare (although it’s disputed) is a 14,000-year-old cemetery near the northern border of modern-day Sudan. 14,000 years? Yeah, that means “forever.”

However, PTSD can be found in anyone who’s experienced a traumatic event, not just soldiers. So, the real history of PTSD likely has no date. In fact, the history of war has no date. Even apes go to war! And that means there are probably apes that witness traumatic ape-on-ape violence and get seriously down by it. Bananas just don’t taste the same. Coco isn’t sexy anymore.

So perhaps both PTSD and war predate humans?

The world may never know!