Dreams of Battle and Death
Dreams of Battle and Death
PTSD officially became a mental health diagnosis in 1980. The history of what is now known as PTSD often references combat history since much of the initial research on the condition was done with vets returning home from war.
According to the National Center for PTSD “the PTSD diagnosis has filled an important gap in psychiatry in that its cause was the result of an event the individual suffered.”
The era of modern medical attempts to identify and treat this condition began with the civil war.
Before it was called PTSD, it was called Shell Shock (WWI), War Neuroses, Combat Stress Reaction (CSR) or Battle Fatigue (WWII), and Gross Stress Reaction among others.
For 11 years I lived with symptoms of PTSD, a result of losing my dad to suicide and being there when it happened. Until I sought therapy I hadn’t realized it’s what I’d been living with. I felt trapped within the walls of my own body and mind, within the bars of a tragic loss I couldn’t go back and prevent from happening, just aching to free myself from relentless self-destructing.
EMDR (eye movement desensitization & reprocessing) pulled me out of the wreckage of that event. Aside from growing and birthing a human, it’s the most miraculous thing I’ve ever experienced. It took me several years afterward to become reacquainted with myself, to be the person I was actually meant to be. The life I’ve built and now lead exists only because of therapy and EMDR. I owe every step toward happiness to that treatment.
Amy other EMDR grads reading this?
Historical sources utilized:
Private William Sergent of Co. E, 53rd Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment, in uniform, after the amputation of both arms by Bundy & Williams. Photograph. 1861
The “Human Squirrel” who did many daring “stunts” in climbing for benefit of War Relief Funds in New York City; shown here at a dizzy height in Times Square by Times Photo Service. Photograph. 1918
