I've heard through some sources of battle fatigue in veterans suffering from what we now know as PTSD in wars earlier than the 20th Century. And of course logic would dictate that soldier of earlier wars still struggled with battle horrors. So while I think I know the answer to my question, is there any stories or evidence of say a crusader or roman legionnaire committing suicide or beating his wife or becoming a recluse after being seasoned in combat?
For sake of an anecdote, there are many stories of my great-grandfather losing his sense of humour and have angry episodes after his experience with the Canadian Army in WW1. He had to move to the prairies because his lungs couldn't deal with the smog in the east after he was mustard gassed in the trenches. Though if he had a few brews and a scotch after dinner, sometimes he would just start sobbing and become an open book telling anyone who would listen what he experienced. Heavy stuff.
I have to imagine an English longbowman would have felt the same way at some point in history.
Ok, this is an interesting one - I can offer an excellent article discussing the role of social support in post-event PTSD mitigation: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2921311/
Generally, based on current understanding, you'd expect to see a variation in PTSD severity and duration coming in based on whether the returning veteran came back to support or a lack thereof. Did the girlfriend marry someone else, the parents die, the job go away? Did the wife and kids happily embrace dad and put him straight back into his place? What injuries did the returnee have and what support and community were available?
Really interested in the historical references to this topic.