Was there PTSD in the ancient or medieval world?

Today we have much less violence than ever before, we live more comfortable lives, people are healthier and mistreating others is often illegal and pushed back against from both governments and the population itself.

Because of that people who experience horrible events are less likely to have anyone around them with that shared experience.

We have, afaik, less occurrence of PTSD when something horrible happens to an entire community, and less mental illness when an entire community is facing a difficult situation.

But for an individual experiencing horrible and horrifying events you not only have the event itself, but a total lack of anyone even remotely close to having had the same experience.

I have a relative with diagnosed (you really have to specify it) PTSD and I have absolutely no experience remotely close to the ones this person has faced, in an environment where there was no escape (family). Afterwards noone seem to understand their reactions, fears (people, loud noises) and feelings, but apparently feel that they are qualified to give advice and to just do things because 'there is no way you are actually physically being limited by your body and I know exactly how you feel because I have the exact same because my dad used to yell at me when I refused to take out the trash now and then'.

This reaction is of course commonplace online, and online help groups have plenty of undiagnosed people who don't seem to be limited in any unusual way or have had any traumatic event, but who then cause stress for those who don't have coworkers or friends or can go do things in public and who really need the online space.

But it's also closer to the reaction and acting most people in real life have to it, and in some cases even mental health professionals, than it is to having had a similar experience.

There just seems to be a too large gap between people who have it average by todays standards and thise who've faced horrible traumas.

I notice a lot of stress in my daily life today with the covid-19 pandemic, where I'm in Sweden where life seems to be going along as normal, while I'm in three separate risk groups, two for serious illnesses and one for the immunosupressants used to treat them, and where I get questioned by my doctors, friends and family as to why I don't want to go to thr clinic or socialize. I can't walk further than a block away because noone keeps any distance and joggers come brushing by from behind. It feels like this is also caused by the different experience. "Why can't they keep their distance, aren't we supposed to do that? Why do they assume I'm not in a risk group and assume that none they see could possibly be?". And this is still an experience they know a lot of people are having and know a lot about through media.

I just think having others that you share your overall experience with helps a lot, and with much better lives in average the distance between those who have it OK and those who have it the worst has increased.

https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-strange-powe...

I suspect that some of the harmful behaviors (we associate with PTSD) weren't socially abhorrent, in past eras.

eg: Societies generally condone some amount of mistreating other people. That particular outlet could have been fully acceptable, when done to marginal and lesser classes.