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

[mids2019]

I keep reading details in the Daily Mail and I know journalists have been given a video of the atrocities but it is absolutely harrowing. I understand large broadcasters can not go into detail as the events were to shocking for a general audience and in reality I think even written descriptions are worse than any thing I have read or watched.

Has anyone felt some outlet to express disgust is helpful (as some sort of therapy)?

Genuine grievances!? Is that what you want to call it!

For myself personally, I find the current situation in Gaza harder to stomach - but for one very specific reason:

I was utterly horrified as I watched events unfold live on TV on 7 October. Even though I am what you would generally refer to as "broadly pro-Palestinian", I also felt deeply personally scared for the many wonderful Israelis I have had the pleasure of knowing.

But the narrative - even though I know a lot about the history and its conflict and that this is not doing justice to any of the complexity - was broadly intelligible: "horrible group does horrible things to people whose fault this is not!".

The Gaza situation, on the other hand, fills me with not only utter horror at the insane level of violence but also a massive amount of cognitive dissonance. Because this time, the narrative accoding to a lot of public discourse is "righteous defence, victim underdog merely defending itself against existential threat - and if you feel differently, you are potentially genocidal". Which, my knowledge of the conflict and just ... my brain tells me "but that does not correspond with the factual information you are getting!"

Feels like an episode of black mirror, but I am a side character in the story - and that affects my well-being more than just exposure to violent content!

The effects of 7th October are very upsetting, but yes the current plight of the Palestinians that really shakes me.

The idea that right now when I tuck my 4yo into get bed, that there are 4 year olds buried in the rubble, slowly dying from their wounds, or asphyxiation or dehydration, makes me want to vomit. There are about a thousand children in the rubble, most of which is not killed outright will have agonisingly slow painful deaths alone.

Kids having amputations without anaesthetics. Kids being told their whole family is dead. Babies in incubators waiting for the last remnants of fuel to run out. Kids drinking seawater to survive.

Yes, the hammas massacre was despicable, but I'm more disturbed by the far larger number of children that are suffering right now, whom the world seems indifferent to.

I have to say I had no idea that anyone could be so evil. It defies belief. And makes me feel very unsafe. I obviously also feel despair about what is going on in Gaza. I listen to my dc talking about Christmas but there is another dialogue entirely going on in my head.

Genuine grievances. Grievances?! Bloody hell. What can you say?

I've had to stop watching the news. My dreams have been vivid and perilous since 7 Oct. I realise as a white British atheist with East European DNA but zero Ashkenazi DNA, I have the luxury of being able switch off. I care about the victims on both sides but I care about my well being and that of my family more

I think it's pretty self centered to read news reports of atrocities and think "wow, this is really horrible, for me".

And what should our response be instead?

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

I think it would be weird if you weren’t mentally affected.

It’s horrific to me how many men there were prepared to roll their sleeves up and do the most unspeakable depraved acts to women and children (rape torture murder) who were strangers to them. Tens of men prepared to do this. We are not different to them. I find myself looking at men and wondering what they would be capable of in different circumstances.

its Possible to acknowledge unimaginable and utter horror for all those directly caught up in this, in both Israel and Gaza AND recognise the toll hearing about depravity and horror takes on oneself. The two aren’t mutually exclusive but actually inextricably connected and it’s part of what makes us human.

Exactly.

Almost any other response is better than making a news report all about yourself. You see it with reports about kiddies getting killed here in the UK as well. All the talk about hugging your own children tightly and how much sobbing people are doing.

I haven't slept properly since October 7.

My husband is Israeli so we've been hearing a lot of what happened from the Israeli news, and from friends - not from the Daily Mail.

I feel constantly sick about the atrocities. I will be going about my day - looking after the children, cooking, or working - and it will suddenly come into my head. It's compounded by the absolute OBSESSION the world seems to have with it, over and above any of the other humanitarian crises that are happening at the same time. The anti-Semitism.

We are only a couple of generations out from the Holocaust. The very idea of babies being taken from their mothers, children dying without their parents there, families separated - it's encoded into our DNA as Jews. This has rattled us beyond explanation.

My friend lost his twin son and daughter who were living on Kibbutz Be'eri with his ex-wife. The son was found murdered immediately; his daughter was not among the known hostages, and he is waiting on DNA evidence from the pile of charred bodies they found. She is very likely among them.

Of course I care more about the Jewish casualties than the Gazan ones. How could I not? How dare anyone expect me to?

It is always heartwarming when one human recognises the starvation, death by dehydration and loss of limbs and loss of lives i of over 3000 children as a genuine grievance. It gives you hope for humanity.

Me
I expect you not to. I'm not alone.

Unless some lives are more important than others then every death is an equal tragedy.

The suffering of a Palestinian child is just as important as an Israeli child. To care about one not then the other is disgustingly racist.

I think it’s normal horror rather than a mental health issue. I couldn’t look at any photos. It’s horrific what humans beings can do to each other. The ongoing hostage situation is just so heartbreaking.

I can’t look at the Gaza photos either - I feel irrationally guilty that so many people are being killed with the help of British arms. Obviously the situation of the people in Gaza right now is absolute hellish. I force myself to read articles about these things as I think it’s important to point out the failings of our own government here.

@Totalblindnessofthesoul you are being ridiculous they are people she knows. Of course she is going to care more.
Virtue signalling at its worst....
It's not racist it's real life.

Its not people she knows, she talks about caring more about the Jewish casualties than the gazan casualties.

It’s not racist for an Israeli to care more about an Israeli than a Palestinian. It’s human nature to care more about the people closest to you. In the same way I expect my government to care more about its own people than those of other countries. We elect and pay them to put our interests first.

And I completely hear you about the brutality OP. What Hamas did displays a level of callousness and cruelty that is unfathomable to me. There is a clear difference between citizens dying by accident because bombing is imperfect and citizens being deliberately targeted: tortured and murdered. I find it strange that the moral distinction is not obvious to a lot of people.

PurpleChrayne

I am so very sorry. It must be hell for your friend.

I'm so sorry. It's like a nightmare.

@sss ' my friend lost his twin son and daughter'
Did you not even bother to read what she has said? I don't even want to repeat the rest.

@ssd see below.

Yes it was

I read it. I know exactly what she said. She cares more about the Jewish casualties than the Gazan ones. End of.