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)?

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

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

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.

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.

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....

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.

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!

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.

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.

I've found the videos and photos to be horrifying and I can't see them anymore.

tbh I feel pretty awful for everyone there and I think it’s natural to find it extremely distressing. But I tend to keep my language and my thoughts on this not too emotive, it doesn’t actually aid discussion and it feels a bit self indulgent to emote about it all over the place. I completely understand when people who have family in the region do though, those people can emote away.

See this is what I don't get. It isn't just Israel / Palestine. This isn't the only war. There are about 32 going on right now. Involving ethnic cleansing, genocide, rape , killing children, all the same stuff and yet no one gives a shit.

BUt suddenly all of you would find it difficult not to be affected by this well why don't you say that about all the other wars?

It's so odd. Most of you don't have skin in the game and it's just self indulgent emoting.

I am horrified by the atrocities on 7th October however I'm not about to start making it about myself by claiming my mental health is affected.

Where were you and are you over all the other wars going on right now?

For a start, this conflict has caused more child deaths than the conflicts in the rest of the world combined for the whole year, in just 3 weeks. More child deaths than the world total in each of the previous few years as well. So this can't really be conpared to other conflicts right now.

There are about 32 going on right now. Involving ethnic cleansing, genocide, rape , killing children, all the same stuff and yet no one gives a shit

But you don't see these on the 10 o'clock news. I could probably very easily seek out reports and images of the other genocides but I'm truly not inclined to. Every one of them is tragic and inhuman, I don't think anyone would disagree with that.

You don't have to watch the news either.

You don't have to watch the news either

As I said upthread, I've stopped watching the news.

Rape, genocide put me in distress. I really dint come across rape claims fro Hamas attacks. So I am more distressed with Genocide. Why Israelis haven't been against atrocities in West Bank and Gaza before 7 th october ???

You don't come across rape claims from the massacre in October, or you don't believe the rape claims from the massacre in October?

This, 100%

Personally, after reading a zillion of these threads on the war - unlike any other level of interest in other wars - and reading much ignorance, I’m shocked at the vibe of antisemitism that seems to be rife.

perhaps that’s why so many people are getting involved in voicing their feelings about this war - a chance for their latent antisemitism to emerge

Yes and she knows some of them personally! Do you honestly expect people to be equally upset about what happens to strangers as to what happens to people they know? That's just not how people operate.

It's made me feel so sad. I'm not Jewish but I hate, and I can never understand why, Jewish people are always blamed for everything and made to be scapegoats. I hate it so much.

Thanks for your comments. It means a lot. The answer is easy though, many many many people hate Jews. That's the simple reason behind it.

I've just read something absolutely horrific. I can't get the image out of my mind now. I know every war is horrible and people die. But torturing babies is a whole other thing.

Yep. shit isn’t it?

The Israeli government and IDF have killed 3,500 kids and babies in 3 weeks.

But your conclusion is that it’s because everyone hates Jewish people?

The only way that you can see the world that way is if you truly do not see all lives as equal. 30 to 40 Jewish child deaths on the 7th October is immeasurably more important to you, than nearly 4,000 Palestinian child deaths. That’s without noting the ones that are suffering the horror of mangled little limbs, no anaesthetic, no food, no clean water, the constant sound of death and destruction, and those who are slowly dying whilst being trapped under rubble.

There is simply no other reason that you can come to your conclusion.

At least try examine your own biases and prejudices. Please.