Regardless, PTSD is a terrible term because it's non-descriptive. It also makes it more difficult for a person to be empathetic to a sufferer of PTSD because it's not an on/off switch and more of a spectrum. A term like "shell shock" illustrates the actual trauma and enables people to be understand better why a person might act the way they do. It is often easier for a person with PTSD to describe themselves as a "victim of X" or "experienced Y" because the term is so disconnected from actual meaning. It belongs in medical textbooks, certainly, but in spoken language it's worthless. A perfect example of jargon.
Personally I think “post traumatic stress disorder” is more descriptive and accurate than “shell shock”. The person isn’t shocked, they’re traumatized. Also it turns out different things can make sense to people in different ways. Probably the term is less important than the understanding.
That doesn’t really make sense. A victim of x doesn’t necessarily get PTSD from that. PTSD describes a specific set of symptoms that can occur after experiencing a traumatic experience.
