The Ongoing Impacts from Trench Warfare
Brought on by the overwhelming conditions of the trenches and the violent bloodshed from WWI was a psychological condition called shell-shock. Throughout the duration of the war, over 80,000 soldiers from the British Army alone were diagnosed as suffering from shell shock, and were often mentally and physically disabled for years following their involvement. The condition was brought on by the constant bombardment of shells, and included symptoms such as tiredness, irritability, giddiness, lack of concentration and headaches (later regarded as Post-traumatic stress disorder).
For over ten years after the war there were over, 65,000 war veterans that continued to receive treatment for shell shock in Britain. They suffered from complete mental breakdowns, and during the time of the war, higher ranking soldiers that suffered the condition were taken to hospitals and returned home to their families as ‘unfit for battle’, while lower ranking troops had to continue fighting until it was virtually impossible for them to remain on the front line.
Soldier’s families were often distressed on the thought their husband/dad/brother had slim chances of returning from battle. Those who did lose loved ones were forced to take on more work in order to provide for their family, which caused a great change in the level of independence and responsibilities of women to their lives throughout the era.
As well as shell shock, soldiers would return from war with high anxiety issues causing health problems and psychological episodes such as hysterical spasms and flashbacks to the scarring memories of their experiences.
For over ten years after the war there were over, 65,000 war veterans that continued to receive treatment for shell shock in Britain. They suffered from complete mental breakdowns, and during the time of the war, higher ranking soldiers that suffered the condition were taken to hospitals and returned home to their families as ‘unfit for battle’, while lower ranking troops had to continue fighting until it was virtually impossible for them to remain on the front line.
Soldier’s families were often distressed on the thought their husband/dad/brother had slim chances of returning from battle. Those who did lose loved ones were forced to take on more work in order to provide for their family, which caused a great change in the level of independence and responsibilities of women to their lives throughout the era.
As well as shell shock, soldiers would return from war with high anxiety issues causing health problems and psychological episodes such as hysterical spasms and flashbacks to the scarring memories of their experiences.
Doctor's Entry:
One of the first experts on "shell shock" was Frederick Walker Mott, he writes in his landmark 1919 study:
"Physical shock accompanied by horrifying circumstances, causing profound emotional shock and terror, which is contemplative fear, or fear continually revived by the imagination, has a much more intense and lasting effect on the mind than simple [physical] shock has. Thus a man under my care, who was naturally of a timorous disposition and always felt faint at the sight of blood, gave the following history. He belonged to a Highland regiment. He had only been in France a short time and was one of a company who were sent to repair the barbed wire entanglements in front of their trench when a great shell burst amidst them. He was hurled into the air and fell into a hole, out of which he scrambled to find his comrades lying dead and wounded around. He knew no more, and for a fortnight lay in a hospital in Boulogne. When admitted under my care he displayed a picture of abject terror, muttering continually, "no send back," "dead all round," moving his arms as if pointing to the terrible scene he had witnessed."
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