I'm going to teach you something interesting about PTSD- it's connected to the primal fear of bears which you mentioned. Why hasn't PTSD been a thing until the 1900s? The answer: it has always been a condition that humans can become afflicted with. It was merely identified, studied, and diagnosed in more recent times. But I always wondered- how did men who survived melee battles cope? We have men getting PTSD just from witnessing their friends getting blown up- certainly horrifying to watch, totally understandable how that can change a man. But what about **hacking a man to death with an axe while your best friend is screaming in agony on the ground next to you, trying to hold his guts in after he just got speared, and there's shouting and blood and death everywhere you look, and all you can do is keep your shield up and keep swinging your axe until it's over!!** This type of up close, extremely personal combat should be extremely traumatic. So why didn't we see PTSD-like conditions being recorded in ancient history? Well, we kind of did. This is fascinating: when a Roman citizen was selling a slave, he had to disclose a few things to the potential buyer: He had to tell the buyer if the slave had ever tried to commit suicide; this makes sense, seeing as a buyer might not want to invest in this slave only to have him off himself. And the only other thing that was required *by law* to disclose: **Has the slave ever been attacked by a wild animal, such as a lion, bear, or wolf?** Why would this be required to disclose? If a man was mauled by a wild animal, he'd surely have the scars to show it. But sometimes people get attacked by animals, mauled for a few minutes, but manage to escape with minimal injury. **But the Romans noticed that people who were mauled CHANGED MENTALLY.** They began to show symptoms of what we call PTSD today. So why wouldn't the slave-seller have to disclose whether or not the slave had been in *battle?* The answer to that is pretty simple: back then, it was *expected* of men to fight. **BATTLE, KILLING, WITNESSING DEATH AND HORRIFIC SUFFERING WAS NORMAL.** But today, what are we taught growing up? "Violence is bad, under **ALL** circumstances. Killing is bad, under **ALL** circumstances." We are indoctrinated with this from birth. Then at age 17-18, we join the military, and they have the task of undoing 18 years of "VIOLENCE BAD, I AM A PUSSY" conditioning and turn you into a killer. I believe if we weren't conditioned to be pussies for our entire young lives, the rate of PTSD would be significantly lower. Sorry for tangent, just thought this might interest you since it connects to your fear of bears. There is something primal about being mauled by an animal, specifically one that's bigger than you, that can fuck your mind up forever. I imagine it has to do with the feeling of helplessness in a desperate moment- if you've ever grappled with a trained fighter, you can get a taste of this feeling: "No matter what I do, this fucker has an answer for it, and I can do *nothing* but struggle."