PTSD and bullet shock are the same thing, discovered during war. Initially, it was seen as cowardice and soldiers were executed. Experts gained a better understanding of PTSD and realized it could occur from any traumatic experience, and treatment could help.
Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a disorder that people sometimes experience when they go through a terrible and intense experience, such as war, violent abuse, or disaster. It was first discovered based on some soldiers’ reactions to terrifying wartime experiences, and they originally called it bullet shock. So essentially, PTSD and bullet shock are the same thing, although the term bullet shock is generally only applied to situations in warfare, while PTSD is applied to nearly all types of traumatic stress.
There has been a gradual evolution between the concepts of PTSD and bullet shock, and at first, the condition was simply thought of as a form of cowardice. During the 1800s and even earlier, soldiers who dealt with these kinds of symptoms were simply executed. The generals, who lacked a real understanding of mental illness or ideas like PTSD and shell shock, assumed that executions would serve as a deterrent to keep soldiers from succumbing to their fear.
World War I was the first conflict in which experts became aware of the existence of the mental condition that would later be known as PTSD and shell shock. The number of mental problems has increased significantly compared to previous wars, and experts have tried to figure out what was going on. Initially, psychiatrists of the time thought that the increase was due to soldiers reacting to heavy explosions from new types of ammunition and bombs, or perhaps also to atmospheric pressure from the explosions. This is why they called it shell shock. There were still many executions for cowardice during that war, and many generals were quite skeptical of the whole shell shock concept.
Over time, experts have gained a better understanding of PTSD. As a result, they were able to make efforts to prevent this from happening in the first place, and subsequent wars resulted in fewer cases. They also began to realize that the condition tended to persist for a long time after a war ended. Some war veterans would actually have lifelong symptoms, though most gradually learned to deal with them more effectively with treatment.
Eventually, experts realized that PTSD wasn’t just limited to wartime experiences. They began to realize that almost any type of extremely traumatic experience could make people suffer from the same symptoms, and those people often responded to the same types of treatments.
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