Shell Shock

Thought this would be something worth mentioning as it could explain a lot about from a military background and why they tend to be more often than others to suffer from mental issues. While watching Who Do You Think You Are last night , Patrick Steward spoke about his father who was abusive to his mother but he never understood why. As the programme went on researching his family history it became clear that his father was suffering shell shock having seen all sorts of sights of children being blown to bits in World War Two.Psychologically now days this is called Post Traumatic Stress Disorder with soldiers having seen all sorts of horrors of war later leading them to find it hard to readjust to civilian life. Some of the after effects are flashbacks, violence, irrational thoughts and physcial manifestations of psychological sympthoms (such as someone thinking they are on fire when they are not etc.) Patrick Stewart learnt that his father was not angry before he went to war but he came back a changed man. Irish soldiers might also be deemed to be at risk from this as the Dept of Defence has allegedly set apart some of its budget for compensations claims for it as part of a €6m fund to deal with personal injury claims. The last website in the referneces below saysThe Department of Defence has also factored into their compensation budget an allocation for post traumatic stress disorder as well as an increase for the most common types of compensation claim – personal injuries arising from traffic accidents, occupational personal injuries, and administrative law cases in areas such as promotion and disciplinary action.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posttraumatic_stress_disorder



http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/last-nights-viewing-who-do-you-think-you-are-bbc1jet-when-britain-ruled-the-skies-bbc4-8092785.html



http://www.injury-compensation.ie/news/category/army-compensation-claims/