Shell Shock

What was shell shock?

The stress of living and fighting in the trenches often caused psychological and mental health problems, known as 'shell shock'.

What were the symptoms of shell shock?

Shell shock could cause nightmares, loss of speech, uncontrollable shaking, and total mental breakdown.

What was the treatment for shell shock?

There was not much understanding about shell shock during the First World War. It was often seen as hysteria, or an attempt to get out of the war.

• ❖ Some men who suffered from shell shock were accused of cowardice, and punished.
• ❖ Attitudes towards those who suffered from shell shock could be harsh, and they were often accused of cowardice and malingering.
• ❖ Electric shock treatments were sometimes used.
• ❖ Many shell shock patients were cared for at home or sent to mental asylums.
• ❖ 2,000 men were treated for shell shock, including the poets Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen, at Craiglockhart Hospital in Scotland.