Sufferer 38 years ago it was called Mal de Guerre.

[DogTired]

So I was coping well until this year when it returned with a vengence.
Nightmares, flashbacks, living in Amber, and not nice.
Worse still, my little coping tricks don't work anymore.
What's changed? I got old.

 

[Riley Jones]

So I was coping well until this year when it returned with a vengence.
Nightmares, flashbacks, living in Amber, and not nice.
Worse still, my little coping tricks don't work anymore.
What's changed? I got old.

I'm so sorry to hear that you're struggling with the return of your symptoms. It's not uncommon for PTSD to resurface, especially during times of increased stress or as we age and our coping mechanisms may need adjustment. It's important to remember that you're not alone in this and reaching out for support is a crucial step towards healing.

At myptsd.com, you'll find a supportive community of individuals who understand what you're going through. Sharing your experiences and connecting with others who have similar challenges can be incredibly validating and empowering. It's also important to consider seeking professional help from a therapist who specializes in trauma treatment to explore new coping strategies.

On the forums at myptsd.com, there are specific sections where you can discuss nightmares, flashbacks, coping mechanisms, and many other topics related to PTSD and CPTSD. Feel free to explore these forums and engage with others who may offer valuable insights and support. Remember, it's okay to ask for help and prioritize your well-being. You deserve care and support as you navigate this difficult period.

 

[Sideways]

Welcome to the forum:)

 

[arfie]

hello dog tired. welcome to the forum. at the risk of going off topic, i am curious about your post title, "mal de guerre." i looked it up and felt fairly certain you weren't talking about the 2008 album release by that name. french for, "war sickness?" it's okay if you decide not to answer. i'm a trivia buff who also studies language and mostly curious.

getting back on topic. . .

my little coping tricks don't work anymore.

i believe --just believing-- that the reduced effectiveness of old tricks has more to do with overuse than the age of the sufferer. the coping tricks my 11 year old foster son when he was 6 don't work for him today. continual adjustment needed throughout however many years of life we are blessed or cursed with. the blessing/curse aspect varies with how you embrace the extra years.

new coping tricks are available and right here is a good spot to find some of those tricks.

welcome aboard.

 

[DogTired]

hello dog tired. welcome to the forum. at the risk of going off topic, i am curious about your post title, "mal de guerre." i looked it up and felt fairly certain you weren't talking about the 2008 album release by that name. french for, "war sickness?" it's okay if you decide not to answer. i'm a trivia buff who also studies language and mostly curious.

getting back on topic. . .

i believe --just believing-- that the reduced effectiveness of old tricks has more to do with overuse than the age of the sufferer. the coping tricks my 11 year old foster son when he was 6 don't work for him today. continual adjustment needed throughout however many years of life we are blessed or cursed with. the blessing/curse aspect varies with how you embrace the extra years.

new coping tricks are available and right here is a good spot to find some of those tricks.

welcome aboard.

Hi arfie.
Mal de Guerre was the label they gave what ailed me in France. You are right. Translated it is 'A sickness of war', now given the cute acronym PTSD.
Which made me chuckle shortly after I was told I had "PTSD" and not Mal de guerre or combat stress.
That's because a friend (who also suffers from combat inspired stress aka PTSD) took his cat to a vet as it was acting strangely and that cat also got labled as having animal PTSD. (ROTFL)
Anyway, the self help treatement (défense passive) the French shrinks taught me remained effective until this year when a lot landed in my lap in the form of sickness and stress. Guess it was all too much for my last functioning braincell. Happy days!

 

[mszl]

Welcome!

 

[DogTired]

Welcome!

And hello to you too.

 

[arfie]

Which made me chuckle shortly after I was told I had "PTSD" and not Mal de guerre or combat stress.

i'll chuckle with you, dog tired. for what it's worth, "war sickness" was wikipedia's translation for "mal de guerre." i needed the google machine translator to connect that the translation was from french.

i am a u.s. army veteran and started my psychotherapy in earnest while i was in the army. this was in 1974 with a man who reminded me an awful lot of donald sutherland's "hawkeye." alan alda's hawkeye had yet to be released. called himself, "a dead duck shrink," among other things. his name-calling was quite colorful. his reference to himself owed to his three tours of duty in the M*A*S*H units of viet nam where he had developed a theory he was calling, "civilian shell shock." the schools of psychiatry were still 20 years away from coalescing the "ptsd" theories into an official dx. he was fighting DOD rather viciously over his civilian shell shock theories, alongside his belief that the military owed amends to the less prepared civilian victims.

springing from that theory set, he declared me, "a victim of the OTHER undeclared war on the u.s. city streets." and put me in with his shell shock group therapy. magic happened in my psychotic world. i believe it did for several of my brothers-in-healing when my presence restructured the military cliches and launched us into closer scrutiny of the symptoms over causes.

the psychotherapy from my 3 year tour of duty segued neatly into the veteran's administration clinics and the vast majority of my psychotherapy was in the company of combat ptsd victims. the groups which specialize in sexual abuse victims leave me feeling like i was once more under the care of kiddie whorehouse madams. hysterical flight in progress.

the synopsis of all that is, good luck convincing me to see the lines between civilian and military mal de guerre. a gunshot is a gunshot, whether it is fired on a combat field or mommy's bedroom.

 

[Friday]

What's changed? I got old.

Feel you hard, there.

Mal de Guerre was the label they gave what ailed me in France. You are right. Translated it is 'A sickness of war', now given the cute acronym PTSD.

In English? It was “A soldiers heart” for a few / several centuries. (Unless it was called “bloodsick” which is another thing, you may or not be familiar with, that has no cute acronyms, & is limited to lived experience. It’s usually temporary, a few days/weeks/months/years, but fairly extreme. Kind of like berserk in reverse.) We lost the depth of description of “a soldier’s heart” with WWI (shell shock which eventually became PTSD).

I tend to split my coping mechanisms between ancient & modern… ancient, Greeks & Romans write extensively on 10,000 coping mechanisms… modern, start here >>> The ptsd cup explanation <<< immediately & infinitely useful.

Friday…USMC, NGO, Disaster Response (and a few other things picked up along the way).

 

[DogTired]

Feel you hard, there.


In English? It was “A soldiers heart” for a few / several centuries. (Unless it was called “bloodsick” which is another thing, you may or not be familiar with, that has no cute acronyms, & is limited to lived experience. It’s usually temporary, a few days/weeks/months/years, but fairly extreme. Kind of like berserk in reverse.) We lost the depth of description of “a soldier’s heart” with WWI (shell shock which eventually became PTSD).

I tend to split my coping mechanisms between ancient & modern… ancient, Greeks & Romans write extensively on 10,000 coping mechanisms… modern, start here >>> The ptsd cup explanation <<< immediately & infinitely useful.

Friday…USMC, NGO, Disaster Response (and a few other things picked up along the way).

I get it. I'd never heard of Mal De Guerre before I acquired it. So, "Illness of War" sounded fair to me (with my scrambled head and all).
Then this new fangled PTSD came out and suddenly everyone had it.
From babies to woke politicians (spits on the floor) and even some seriously weak guy missing out on a summer break was enough to give him PTSD.
Three examples of how it's been watered down.

As a result, I stick with old school. Mal de guerre.
As for coping? The docs in France did teach me a few tricks to waterdown the effects which worked a treat until recently.
Problem is (as always) the media and their love of carnage. Which started off the nightmares and flashbacks again.
IT probably didn't help when I got loads of texts and phone calls from old friends.
They all pointing out that a lot of what we saw, we had already lived through. (I did remember to thank them before hanging up).

There's that thing, "I do not know with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones." (Einstein)
BUT MORE IMPORTANTLY, there will be no social media, Youtube, newspapers, Internet, personal computers, or smartphones!
It won't even be written about in history books. Those thoughts are relaxing me as I type this so "Bring It On!" for all I care.

 

[DogTired]

I'm so sorry to hear that you're struggling with the return of your symptoms. It's not uncommon for PTSD to resurface, especially during times of increased stress or as we age and our coping mechanisms may need adjustment. It's important to remember that you're not alone in this and reaching out for support is a crucial step towards healing.

At myptsd.com, you'll find a supportive community of individuals who understand what you're going through. Sharing your experiences and connecting with others who have similar challenges can be incredibly validating and empowering. It's also important to consider seeking professional help from a therapist who specializes in trauma treatment to explore new coping strategies.

On the forums at myptsd.com, there are specific sections where you can discuss nightmares, flashbacks, coping mechanisms, and many other topics related to PTSD and CPTSD. Feel free to explore these forums and engage with others who may offer valuable insights and support. Remember, it's okay to ask for help and prioritize your well-being. You deserve care and support as you navigate this difficult period.

Thank you for this reply.

i'll chuckle with you, dog tired. for what it's worth, "war sickness" was wikipedia's translation for "mal de guerre." i needed the google machine translator to connect that the translation was from french.

i am a u.s. army veteran and started my psychotherapy in earnest while i was in the army. this was in 1974 with a man who reminded me an awful lot of donald sutherland's "hawkeye." alan alda's hawkeye had yet to be released. called himself, "a dead duck shrink," among other things. his name-calling was quite colorful. his reference to himself owed to his three tours of duty in the M*A*S*H units of viet nam where he had developed a theory he was calling, "civilian shell shock." the schools of psychiatry were still 20 years away from coalescing the "ptsd" theories into an official dx. he was fighting DOD rather viciously over his civilian shell shock theories, alongside his belief that the military owed amends to the less prepared civilian victims.

springing from that theory set, he declared me, "a victim of the OTHER undeclared war on the u.s. city streets." and put me in with his shell shock group therapy. magic happened in my psychotic world. i believe it did for several of my brothers-in-healing when my presence restructured the military cliches and launched us into closer scrutiny of the symptoms over causes.

the psychotherapy from my 3 year tour of duty segued neatly into the veteran's administration clinics and the vast majority of my psychotherapy was in the company of combat ptsd victims. the groups which specialize in sexual abuse victims leave me feeling like i was once more under the care of kiddie whorehouse madams. hysterical flight in progress.

the synopsis of all that is, good luck convincing me to see the lines between civilian and military mal de guerre. a gunshot is a gunshot, whether it is fired on a combat field or mommy's bedroom.

Chuckle. Didn't know Wiki was around in the 80's.
Way I figured it was the French Docs weren't anything to do with the UK health service so they would know what they were talking about.
That and my ex- legionnaire bud knew exactly what I was talking about (then he called me a 'mauviette' aka wimp).

 

[arfie]

Chuckle. Didn't know Wiki was around in the 80's.

i can assure you wiki wasn't around in the 80's but there are some top notch historians and linguists working the website.

to increase our social distances even further in this discussion, i'm working the u.s. system. i'm not sure what the u.k. called "shell shock" way back in the last millennium and don't trust the machine translators to tell me. for what it's worth, my machine translator agrees that a parisian mauviette would be a wimp in nyc.