Is anyone's mental health affected by simply reading about the horrors of October 7th

Yes, it is in mainstream media with a picture of the man relaying what he saw but of course people WANT to believe it’s a lie because their tiny minds don’t want to accept they are supporting depraved government terrorists masquerading as ‘freedom fighters’ who blockade their own civilians in military target zones deliberately placed in schools, hospitals and residential areas so they are killed.

No. Many of us don't struggle to believe what happened on the 7th. We also know what happened before that and after that.

We aren't supporting Hamas. We're supporting the thousands of murdered children. The homeless, starving, dispossessed, thirsty, injured, agonised, traumatised people of Gaza. Which shouldn't be a controversial position if you believe Palestinians are human beings.

It is extremely unusual for the U.K. to deliver Navy and RAF assistance to support a country that has brutally killed almost 4000 children and babies in 25 days.

We also have our Prime Minister speaking “on behalf of the British people”, saying that we all back this brutality. This is despicable.

Well this is it exactly. This is the bit for me that makes it personal to me. I want to say a very clear and loud “Not in my name” to the British government
.

Yes, it is in mainstream media with a picture of the man relaying what he saw but of course people WANT to believe it’s a lie because their tiny minds don’t want to accept they are supporting depraved government terrorists masquerading as ‘freedom fighters’ who blockade their own civilians in military target zones deliberately placed in schools, hospitals and residential areas so they are killed.

What has affected me more than these deliberately provocative demonic acts is the horrific realisation that there is a large proportion of people who agree with them and on a slightly lesser scale, that these people are that dumb they don’t understand and haven’t bothered to research the history of why Israel has had to take the action that it has and the reason that Palestinian civilians have been killed.

Also it beggars belief that they believe anything the people capable of planning, committing and/or cheering for the some of the worst atrocities ever seen in the present day, say or post on SM!

Save the Children:

“The charity consulted more than 470 children from across the West Bank who have been detained over the past ten years. It found that most children were taken from their homes at night, blindfolded, with their hands painfully bound behind their backs. Many of the respondents said they were not told why they were being arrested or where they were being taken.”

“They destroyed the front door, entered my room, covered my face with a bag and took me away…They told my father that I would return the next day. I returned after 12 months,” said Abdullah* who was detained six times as a child.

““TREATED LIKE ANIMALS” – PALESTINIAN CHILDREN SUFFER INHUMANE TREATMENT IN ISRAELI-RUN PRISONS”

“STRIPPED, BEATEN AND BLINDFOLDED: NEW RESEARCH REVEALS ONGOING VIOLENCE AND ABUSE OF PALESTINIAN CHILDREN DETAINED BY ISRAELI MILITARY”

“Nearly half (42%) are injured at the point of arrest, including gunshot wounds and broken bones. Some report violence of a sexual nature and some are transferred to court or between detention centres in small cages, the child rights organisation said.”

——

I think when you consider the kinds of common experiences of Palestinians, and the utter brutality of the Israeli government, you can understand how Palestinians can be groomed for violence.

Likewise, when you see the way that people from the Israeli side talk, and the internalised victim mentality that they’re taught from day dot that allows their government to control them so well, you can also see how they are groomed to accept violence towards Palestinians (even children).

I have empathy for both sides, but objectively the suffering of the Palestinians is something quite uniquely horrific.

To the people who keep asking why people are obsessed with what is happening to the Palestinians, the answer is quite simple:

It is extremely unusual for the U.K. to deliver Navy and RAF assistance to support a country that has brutally killed almost 4000 children and babies in 25 days.

We also have our Prime Minister speaking “on behalf of the British people”, saying that we all back this brutality. This is despicable.

I just cannot fathom this mentality where people think these because of anti-semitism rather than it being because of these simple facts that are causing utter outrage.

Sadly many don't believe the stories of what Hamas terrorists did to babies, children, women ....maybe since in denial or maybe too awful to think people could do that. Others want to see it to believe it and Israeli families don't want to share the videos that hamas recorded of their loved ones agonising deaths. Is private and horrifying to show it. They did share hamas recordings with a huge range of journalists but many people still didn't believe it happened....

Not MY mental health is affected...poor me. It's just awful to do that.

But it's the only lens I can view this from. I don't have skin in the game.

It certainly has, yes. I'm largely avoiding the news now, as it's so distressing, and nobody benefits from me feeling distressed. I've got mental health issues already anyway.
So much love and sympathy for those personally affected, on both sides.

I said 'all over the media not just tiktok' meaning it has gone mainstream not just the more out there social media sites.

It was reported by a first responder (I think), called Asher Moscowitz. There is a video of his statement.

Sorry didn’t mean to spread misinformation if it’s not true, apologies. Although equally soul destroying for any family killed if it be via a bomb or a gun to the head. Both equally tragic. There’s no denying it’s far harder to understand the mindset of a grown man parading a dead woman on the back of a truck and laughing or a child killed at point blank range in their car seat than it is a man sat behind a computer pressing a button even if the outcome is the same.

Of course it is all over social media ... as is a whole bunch of other stuff ranging from "benign and plausible" to "absurd and dangerous".

Check the source I have linked: it cites not only where it has so far traced the origin of the story back to as well as fact checking activities conducted so far but also - most importantly, in terms of their credibility - a call for anyone with credible and better information to come forward and correct them.

That is why I wrote the story was "probably" a hoax.

But "all over social media" as such is, quite frankly, not a measure of plausibility! The "great reset" is all over social media. "Flat earth" has more traction on SM than anywhere else. "Pizzagate", ... etc.! That would be because all of them are completely absurd and therefore unable to gain serious traction outside of spaces where anyone can post anything (except, at best, as the subject of academic investigation of a sociological phenomenon).

Sorry I don't know how to edit. I meant not just on TikTok.

@HeidiInTheBigCity to be fair it's all over the media Today and just in TikTok posts etc. First Responder's giving statements.

It's a bit like the 'beheaded babies' stories. Children and adults have been found minus heads (I can't even believe I am typing that) but without being there or someone confessing it's impossible to confirm why they are headless.

With all due respect: the "baby being baked in an oven" story is probably a hoax. See here (Israeli source; use Twitter/X auto-translation feature if you cannot read Hebrew):

https://twitter.com/FakeReporter/status/1718913377827795133?t=8h-fGyr9y5-eoXzaxF2Qog&s=19

Nobody is being done any favours here by people spreading so-called atrocity propaganda!

I imagine some people's closest connection to the Middle East on here is visiting a Lebanese restaurant in Doncaster.

And yet they belittle people's actual lived experience. Don't let that get in your way of a bit of keyboard warrioring though.

I think this thread is getting slightly derailed. No one set of innocent lives is more important than the other and the whole thing is truly abhorrent. I think the point is, some of the deaths that are coming out from the Hamas attack are truly terrifying and beyond most peoples comprehension. Before this, I genuinely thought it impossible that someone could burn a small baby alive in an oven however full of hate they were.

I am so very sorry for your loss. I can't even begin to imagine what your friend must be going through.
I pray for a better world for all of our children

I really haven't. But you acknowledge it is cruel, I guess.

Stop adding to it.

People are hurting you don’t need to make it worse.

Because she knows people in Israel ffs.

Presumably from your comments, you care more about people in Gaza than you do it those in Israel. Why do you think that's ok but it's not ok for her?

You never see this kind of cruelty, are you kidding me?? You obviously see what you want to see then

Same here OP.

Reading about the father happy that his 7 year old daughter was killed immediately in the Hamas attack.
Rather than the much worse alternative of her being taken hostage and tortured, and repeatedly gang raped.

It is horrific.
And the proclamation that they will keep repeating the October 7 style attacks till they get all the Jews.

And yet I live in a foreign land where all posters of hostages, even of the 4 year olds, are torn to shreds.

To think that people around me are so blasé about the atrocities.

No. Because I know what triggers me I only watch as much news as I can handle. I have ZERO power in this situation.

I also have my own issues like a disabled child so my energy is better redirected on his immediate problems with education and health which I can change 100% his outcome is fully within my power. There are many millions of others in my case, England, worrying about the news with possibly time to march or protest or whatever I don't have the capacity. I don't feel bad putting my MH first as I'm fully certain plenty of others are very very concerned and doing things within their power. Me switching off changes nothing. We all have our hills to die on. Mine is SEND. Someone is BLM, someone else is LGBT etc. We do what can for our hill. But you can't die on every hill. I care, don't get me wrong. But I can not torture myself with Syria, Ukraine, Gaza, Israel etc etc etc or I would have a stroke. News is bad for my MH. I make sure I am aware. But I don't need to know how a child was blown into mince meat to care more. I know that child died. It makes me sad. I don't need to see their dead body, crying dad, blood soaked shroud, wailing siblings to feel that better. I feel it deeply just knowing they died. I don't need gore to make it real. It's already real to me. I know what a missile does to body. I don't need to see it to understand it. I can see it in my head. In fact the more you see bodies under 1 metre lined up in street I'm sure it gets less shocking. The more you watch the news, the more standard those scenes are. No. I'm not going there. Humans are evil. They get pleasure in horrific events. So it ever was and will be. New year new war. Every year. For life. How do you fully absorb every death in every war? You can never fully grasp the utter horror until you speak to someone who there. I wish I didn't even know what I do as it is. I lost faith in humanity a long long time ago

@ssd this