Did ancient soldiers/warriors suffer from PTSD?

Did ancient soldiers/warriors suffer from PTSD?
Are their any accounts of episodes experienced by these people?

Sure. Sophocles' Ajax is a whole play about PTSD and soldiers' inability to process it.

They were generally raised as children to become warriors right? The training was a helluva lot more brutal too, so I would guess not as much if at all

>because children cannot be traumatized
That would only mean they are more experienced headcases late ron.

That is the opposite of how it works

I assumed being conditioned as a child that it was the norm made war less traumatizing as an adult. It made sense when I thought about it...

The younger you are when aquiring a mental condition the more severe it is.

Even if that's a normal part of your culture? Weird, I thought trauma was relative to social context. Am I retarded?

I believe you're thinking along the lines of toughening up. A trauma has a function. You learn to dissociate, sorta like going blank in a traumatizing situation. Just like repeated rape victims learn to 'beam themselves away'. That is not a healthy thing though but just something that makes you survive mentally. You're still deeply wounded. And traumatized children have loads of other defects, no matter how well they may be able to fight. Night terrors, bedwetting, uncontrollable rage, impulsivity. They are fucking frightened all the time.

why do people from some cultures experience almost no PTSD while people from other cultures get the worst cases?
For example American Marines are one of the most afflicted groups.
British Royal Marines it's practically non-existent.
It's entirely non-existent in most Special Forces Operators as well.

Stress is stress. Context is essentially irrelevant. You want to know the real reason that almost every society had laws of war that would restrain them in victory? even the infamously bloodthirsty romans? It's not mercy for theweak. It's toprotect the warriors ftom themselves. We have accounts of ptsd from republican era rome, the greeks, and probably oldr ones besides. Enough trauma eill break you, and the earlier you start, the worse your chances. It's essentially metal fatigue.

You're assuming all groups report equally. Special forces would be throwing a lifestyle and career away by doing so. Usmc have a ot less to lose.

Ancient soldiers honestly didn't fight that much. Their experience is incomparable to troops who cowered in trenches every hour for weeks, who died never once seeing their enemy if they were lucky, and if unlucky lived to see all their friends bits blown across their living space. The perpetual and constant stress of modern war is much greater than ancient warriors faced. A greek soldier might fight a dozen battles, all resolved within a few days. A laughably short period compared to being a German at Verdun and watching your division take over 100% casualties over months.

I don't believe that's true. The US have a well developed psychiatry. I don't know how that works for Brits. Thtat might give a hint at how chances are to be diagnosed at all.
Also PTBS can sorta be inherited. There's a physical factor: Trauma "scars" the amygdala, she gains weight. On top of that parents' behavior forms the child's mind. Thus stress and coping with stress is learned over generations. Maybe one country has more of a warrior case than the other so it either becomes really bad over generations ore isn't noticed at all because being a headcase is the norm.

and the Royal Marines?
wouldn't spec ops come out about ptsd after the fact though?

The Royal Marines are a special operations unit; are you under the impression that it's the Brit version of the USMC?

It's got nothing to do with culture. Different armies and nations have different deployment times, support structures, recruit profile and experience different warfare intensity and duration.

I know on average British soldiers tend to be older, non-reservist and have shorter deployments, all highly important factors.

Spec ops are rarely in combat situations for extended periods of time. In most cases it's not the single intense even that gets you, it's the daily grind and inability to process the stress out of your system fast enough.

Note not its about honor and pridr

>hurrdurr warfare didn't suck until we got explosives

>PTSD
I fucking hate these western excuses for your effeminate weaknesses. Listen faggot, when you live rough, there isn't much time to be a pussy.

Royal Marines are another elite force. Come out after thefact? There are currently serving personnel who will tell you therapy is for pussies, even if you HAVE PTSD. Militaries arenot friendly to this shit, and even acknowledging PTSD is aproblem is a major cultural shift. For fucks sake, people still think beating kids will make them "tough" and essentially immune to PTSD, because PTSD is caused by being weak. Also, different deployment and care. U marines are fucking expendable, and are stuck with long deployments and get jack shit for mental healthcare.

t. soyboy who has never actually lived rough
Shellshock/ptsd has been reported in a lot of cultures throughout history.

>implying it wasn't invented by soyboys who believed they lived a tragic life
>reported in a lot of cultures throughout history
Go take your 1st world problems elsewhere

every white girl dream

in marathon an athenian soldier went blind although suffered no injury, after the death of his fellow fighter

It has nothing to do with sucking, it has everything to do with duration. A single rapid traumatic day is nothing like a modern soldiers extended traumatic existence, it shouldn't be surprising they suffer higher rates of PTSD for that alone.

No shit sherlock, thanks for admitting that ancient soldiers got PTSD.

In addition, its considerable to note that the other Athenians never bashed this veteran as being a coward after the battle. He apparently received the same honors as everyone else, and continued on living.

Most likely, more than a few myths depict the sort of things we commonly associate with PTSD and may well be ways of the ancient world addressing the trauma that soldiers and warriors go through.

The story of Hercules depicts a veteran warrior falling to blood lust and slaughtering his family (albeit under influence of Hera) before going out on a journey of repentance. In the same way that the Iliad is about dealing with the effects of war and how blind rage destroys us, just look at Achilles' meloncholy after Patroclus dies yet he wages back into battle, consumed by his hatred and need for killing.

The Odyssey is a pretty good example as well, a veteran suffers and loses his way attempting to return to his home and family. He's tempted and set back, constantly being dragged into the effects of something he is trying to escape as those around him are pushed away through his action or inaction. Taken as a journey of the mind, it's the classic example of a warrior trying to reestablish a domestic normal life.

Yes, however PTSD is more easily induced during long stretches of stress and uncertainty. Ancient battlefields didn't have as much uncertainty, you couldn't get blown up or shot at any time, you could always see your enemy before they could kill you. There are ancient accounts of people remembering the horrors of war or people acting insane from it.