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Revision as of 08:38, 17 May 2002
Shell shock is the old term for Post-traumatic Stress Disorder caused by first hand exposure to the violence and horror of warfare.
Shell shock is not limited to warfare, though it was first noted and given this name around the time of World War I. Rather, shell shock may be experienced following any traumatic experience or series of experiences that do not allow the victim to readily recuperate from the detrimental effects of stress.
In earlier times and even today, shell shock has been regarded as simple cowardice, an unwillingness to put one's welfare at risk when danger is at hand. This is not, strictly speaking, true. Shell shock is a mental condition in which the individual involved is perilously close to a break from reality, usually by succumbing to any of several neuroses or psychoses.
The disorder is not well understood even today. Drug therapy is not typically successful, as the disorder does not arise from any organic cause and behavioral drugs are of little value in long-term psychiatric care. Talk therapy may prove useful, but only insofar as the individual victim is enabled to come to terms with the trauma suffered and successfully integrate the experiences in a way that does not further damage the psyche.