Sadly, in Israel we live through events that can cause anxiety and/or trauma on an ongoing basis. But since Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, and the war that followed and continues to this day, many Israelis are living with anxiety, and some are suffering from PTSD caused by the various events they have experienced since. In this article, we will help you recognize PTSD in your loved ones, describe some of the symptoms, and explain how to cope with PTSD and how it can be treated.
What Is PTSD?
PTSD, known professionally as post-traumatic stress disorder (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder), is a psychiatric disorder that causes those who suffer from it to feel fear, anxiety, helplessness, heightened arousal and sleeplessness, all as a result of intrusive memories of the traumatic event or events they were exposed to, lasting more than several weeks. Of course, every person is different, and each person with post-traumatic stress disorder is affected by it in a different way.
About 10% of Israel’s population is diagnosed with PTSD, and there are many different situations that can lead to PTSD, for example sexual assault, a car accident and more. At the same time, the Swords of Iron war that began on October 7 has brought additional causes that push people into states of anxiety, among them: families evacuated from the north and the south to a new place, where things don’t always “go smoothly”; many reservists who go through traumatic events; ZAKA volunteers who had to witness and deal with horrific scenes in the communities near the Gaza border in the days after the terrible Hamas attack; wives of reservists who live with fear and anxiety every day, worried about the fate of their loved ones; and many other reasons.
How Can You Recognize PTSD in a Loved One?
Your son, husband or wife has come home after months of reserve duty. Even if they were not (by their own account) deep inside Gaza or at the center of the fighting, keep an eye on them: make sure they are eating properly, sleeping properly and behaving normally, the way they did before the fighting and/or their reserve service began.
The clinical symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder appear after physical or emotional exposure to a traumatic event (in other words, even witnessing a traumatic event can lead to the development of the disorder). The symptoms of PTSD fall into four main groups:
- Intrusive symptoms (such as flashbacks, in which the person feels as if the traumatic event is happening again, or nightmares)
- Avoidance (such as avoiding thoughts about the event, or places or people associated with it)
- Changes in cognition and mood (inability to remember the trauma, self-blame, a narrowed range of emotions and more)
- Hyperarousal (sleeplessness, hypervigilance, irritable or aggressive behavior)
PTSD has quite a few symptoms. Here are 3 of the main ones:
- Agitation: restlessness, unease, a feeling of irritability. Untreated trauma can lead to aggressive, hostile behavior directed both at the person with PTSD and at those around them.
- Problems with concentration and thinking: the “fight or flight” response is a mechanism that kicks in when we face danger, or at least a sense of danger, and we intuitively decide in an instant whether to fight or to flee the situation we are in. Resources shift away from higher cognitive functioning toward stress and survival functioning, which impairs thinking and concentration over time.
- Hyperarousal: heightened alertness as a way to protect yourself, constantly scanning your surroundings, expecting something bad to happen soon, being on edge, reacting instantly and unnecessarily to noises around you, and so on.
Post-traumatic stress disorder has many symptoms. Click for information on PTSD symptoms.
Just as soldiers receive psychological support and guidance before going to war, and certainly before going into combat in Gaza or in the north, it is highly recommended to make sure your loved ones are doing as well as possible emotionally: talk with them as much as you can, make sure they are managing to sleep properly, and so on.
There are various non-medical treatments, such as different types of sedatives, ketamine, therapy sessions and other approaches. In addition to these, there is a medical treatment with a 75% success rate, which we will now describe in more detail:
SGB: A Medical Treatment for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
Stella’s medical treatment for PTSD provides very significant relief from the physical symptoms of trauma (for example: hyperarousal, sleep problems, panic attacks and more) and can be combined with other types of treatment.
Please note: in light of the Swords of Iron war that began on October 7, 2023, those who meet the criteria can receive a subsidy of up to 80% of the cost of treatment.
At Stella, we have developed a short medical procedure after which you can feel significant relief from the physical and biological symptoms, relief that will give your loved ones a break! A break from the constant anxiety they are living in.
More than 75% of patients treated with SGB at Stella report significant relief from PTSD symptoms after just 2 treatments!
By injecting an anesthetic into a precise, specific area near the sympathetic nerves in the neck, the treatment reduces the level of norepinephrine released in the feedback loop between the body and the brain. It also reduces NGF (Nerve growth factor), which likewise rises after trauma and causes maladaptive neural learning in the system.
Don’t hesitate to reach out to a qualified professional to begin your path to recovery.
We at Stella Israel are here for you with any question
