PTSD was a Huge Part of the Wild West

Sometime ago, I visited Tombstone, Arizona. The old west has always been an interest of mine. Tombstones historical significance and the lore it has is what drives people there, me included. While there I had a realization while walking around and going into the saloons. I noticed the huge mirrors behind the bars and thought to myself, I know why that’s there. So many of the gunfighters, lawmen, and cowboys during Tombstone’s heyday had to have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Their actions and behaviors look familiar to people who have PTSD today. The hypervigilance of the gunfighters, lawmen, and cowboys are legendary and documented. Those who lived in the old west and were willing to discuss their upbringing disclosed some tough situations they had been in before they came west. Most of these men and women were tough customers and brought up in a world of violence either by war or circumstance. Most of them had their lives threatened and had seen the carnage of war or life. America was a violent place and folks died young from the civil war until the turn of the century. Many of them had their parents die at a young age placing them in horrible where they were often treated like slaves. Some were old enough to find their own way but that too had its own issues and dangers.

Those who came west usually had some type of trauma in their past. A lot of those who came west served in the civil war on both sides and found an uneasy complacency once they got there. The west was lawless at the time and many of the lawmen had been or were gunslingers themselves. The evidence that surrounds the lore of their hypervigilance is numerous. During most of the firsthand stories, novels, and movies there is an indication that the gunslingers of the old west had PTSD. They sat with their back to the wall so they could see the door and who was coming and going allowing them to feel safe. This is a sure sign of their hypervigilance and an indication that their PTSD was alive and well. The huge mirror in most bars were present allowing them to see behind them helping them feel safe. They had to be hypervigilant, they had been taking risks and needed to be aware of their surroundings. Gunslingers and lawmen had a lock on taking chances. Their risk taking has been written and described by authors and screen writers for over 150 years. What can be riskier than being a gunslinger or lawman in the wild west. Many of the noted train, bank, and stagecoach robbers were taking huge risks with their lives. The constant threat to their lives is a sure sign they were searching for the adrenaline rush they needed in their lives because of their PTSD. It did not matter which side of the law the gunslingers where on, they were reaching for the rush they needed.

When you take a closer look, you can see how the gunfighters, lawmen, or just those who came west had similarities to today’s veterans with PTSD. The hypervigilance and risk takingexhibited by those from the wild west and today show how long PTSD has been around. When we think about survival and PTSD, we don’t think about what the old west was like and how parallels existed between those who had PTSD in the old west and our veterans of today. There are a lot of similarities when you take a closer look, and a lot can be learned from those who lived to tell the tails of the old west. To some their PTSD kept them safe, they utilized their resources and hypervigilance to survive. Just as those who have PTSD now can do.

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