r.e. PTSD and stuff along those lines
I sometimes wonder if the reason we today come up with novel issues or new things to be upset by is because we don't have more serious things to worry about like being allowed to stay alive in the first place
PTSD is quite a good example as in WW2 soldiers got disgraced for having PTSD after what they'd seen and now you can be diagnosed with PTSD because you were bullied at school
I'm not trying to say that sarcastically, or complain, I think it's a reflection of how much things have improved that we can afford to be upset by things that until recently would be trivialities
From what I have read (and it's not a lot), PTSD is real, there are some events that our mind has problems coping with.
My interpretation is - Our brain wants to file it away as a memory, and close the filing cabinet draw, not to forget, it will always be there in the draw to be recalled if, and when we want to but for many reasons we are unable to reach that stage, we are perhaps unable to rationalise what we saw or remember.
The most obvious case would be war.
It seems that humans from early times were in conflict, two tribes might throw stones or sticks at each other.
This should be easy to deal with, because the enemy was visible, doing the same as you, and many people on both sides got hurt, injury and death was normal in every day life so, 'war' was little different.
WW1 - Really not all that different, we had stopped throwing stones but could, 'throw' lead and iron, lots of people on both sides were getting injured or killed so it was to be expected, and as, 'other ranks' you were cannon fodder, not all that different to your pre-war life.
WW 2 - For rank and file little changed, the two sides were perhaps a bit further apart, the change was there was the real chance you could be injured/killed by someone you could not see, and at any time, there was no let-up, even if you moved into the reserve/rest area there was always a risk.
Fighter pilots didn't shoot men down, they shot other fighters down, bombers bombed targets.
Civilian life had also moved on, not a lot but enough to make people want to survive, death was beginning to become, 'tragic'.
But by the end of the war, the numbers killed was too high to comprehend, everyone new someone who had lost family.
In modern life, death is not normal every day.
Modern wars are not fought, man to man, the fighter is more likely to be killed by something unseen, fights go on in among non-combatants, so if it moves shoot changes to, if it moves check if you should shoot, then you might shoot.
Your radio and radar which used to help you to find the enemy, now it tells the enemy where you are.
A fighting unit is smaller, and more intimate, anyone missing is is more noticeable.
So the stress level is very much higher, and almost always there, death is not as frequent, and therefore a shock, and more likely to be messy.
And the dead/injured are often children, and the grief of parents is visible this is not easy to deal with, combatants would not have seen this in the past.
As to bullying, in the past close family and friends helped to put right the physical and mental damage from bullying but it was almost accepted as part of life, and growing up, that's not to say it did not influence future life, it did but we learned to live with the effects.
In the modern world, family is too busy to offer support and close friends send a text, so it is difficult to get it sorted out to go into the filing cabinet and shut the door.
BUT I could be miles out.
