A Psychiatrist’s Take: “It’s Not PTSD, Is It???”

As early as the American Civil War, we have record of awareness that some individuals developed physical and emotional symptoms in response to wartime stress exposure . Over time, the terms changed, but were still primarily connected to some form of combat trauma; “soldier’s heart,” “shell shock,” and “combat fatigue” were a few of the terms offered to describe the cluster of physical symptoms that resembled sudden feelings of impending doom, panic, and overwhelming anxiety. All of these implied that there was something internally “wrong” with the person that would lead them to respond in an excessive way.