![]() At the time, women who expressed vehement emotions were labeled with “hysteria,” a condition that supposedly arose from the uterus. Then there are more modern descriptions, like accounts of Civil War combatants who developed what their doctors called “soldier’s heart.”īut though early physicians looked for a physical cause, it wasn’t until the 1880s that psychiatrists connected the symptoms to the brain. There’s Herodotus’ description of an Athenian soldier who became blind after witnessing the Battle of Marathon in 490 B.C., and a Shakespearean monologue in Henry IV, Part 1 in which Lady Percy describes her husband’s sleeplessness and inability to enjoy life after fighting a battle. Medical historians have documented many early accounts of what would now be classified as PTSD. Nearly seven percent of American adults will likely experience PTSD during their lifetimes, but it took hundreds of years, and the dawn of industrial-scale warfare, for society to recognize the deleterious physical and mental effects of experiencing, witnessing, or becoming aware of traumatic events. Patients develop PTSD after experiencing, learning about, or witnessing a traumatic event-defined as “actual or threatened death, serious injury, or sexual violence”-and their intrusive symptoms affect their ability to cope in the present. But if they were treated today, they would likely receive a formal psychiatric diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).Īlthough the diagnosis has its roots in combat, the medical community now recognizes that PTSD affects civilians and soldiers alike. ![]() These soldiers’ symptoms were recorded not on paper charts, but on cuneiform tablets inscribed in Mesopotamia more than 3,000 years ago.īack then, the ancient soldiers were assumed to have been hexed by ghosts. Civil War, or even World War I, you’d be wrong. ![]() Which war? If you guessed Vietnam, the U.S. Haunted and fearful, the soldiers struggled with the ghosts of war. ![]() Flashbacks, nightmares, and depression plagued them. "It's one thing to say that mental health is and psychological health is under pressure - that's true - but also the opposite of that has to be what we're doing to support and provide psychosocial support to people and communities," he said.The battles were over, but the soldiers still fought. Mike Ryan, executive director of the WHO's health emergencies program, urged people to not just highlight the mental health toll of the pandemic as a problem, but to also discuss solutions. She added, though, that the mental health toll of the pandemic will emerge as a major issue in the long term, saying that "there needs to be a lot more emphasis by governments, by communities, by families, by individuals to look after our well-being."ĭr. Kerkhove added that the world is still in the "acute phase" of the pandemic, when the virus is tearing through communities, killing tens of thousands every week. Whether you've lost your job, children who haven't been in school, people who are forced to stay home in very difficult situations." "There are variations in terms of the impact that this has had on individuals, whether you have lost a loved one, or a family member or friend to this virus. "The answer is absolutely yes," Maria Van Kerkhove, head of the WHO's emerging diseases and zoonosis unit, said. Tedros' deputies emphasized that mental health ought to be prioritized. His comments came in response to a question about whether countries should take the pandemic's impact on the economy and mental health into account more as they chart their paths forward. ![]() "And when there is mass trauma, it affects communities for many years to come." "And that means mass trauma, which is beyond proportion, even bigger than what the world experienced after the Second World War," he added, noting the effect on mental health. Personal Loans for 670 Credit Score or Lower Personal Loans for 580 Credit Score or Lower Best Debt Consolidation Loans for Bad Credit ![]()
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