Anxiety about a new war casts a shadow over the Lebanese’s mental health

Amid fears that war will break out between Hezbollah and Israel, ten months after they exchanged bombs, the people of Lebanon are afraid and some have panic attacks, especially with Israeli planes again breaking the low-altitude sound barrier, which puts a heavy burden on the psyche. health and awakening traumas from past wars.

Jana (29 years old), who gave a pseudonym to protect her privacy and lives in a small southern town that is very far from the border and the fighting line, says, ” When I hear the wall of sound once or twice a day, I think the house will fall on me and I’m very afraid.”

She told AFP, “Sometimes I freeze in place, and at other times I get emotional and burst into tears. “

Since the escalation between Hezbollah and Israel began in southern Lebanon, the day after the war began in Gaza on October 7, Jana describes how the sound of bombing, although distant, has come become an integral part of her daily life, moreover. to the daily breaching of the wall by Israeli warplanes.

She describes how the feeling of fear brings her back to the devastating war of July 2006 that Hezbollah and Israel fought while she was eleven years old. She says, “Sometimes in an unconscious way, you remember, and your body shows a feeling of fear … and these sounds take you back to the past. “

Although Hezbollah and Israel have been exchanging daily bombings across the border for ten months, the level of fear of escalation has increased recently in Lebanon after Tehran and Hezbollah promised to respond the assassination of the head of the political bureau of the Palestinian movement Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, and the assassination of the head of Hezbollah, Fouad Shukr.

The upheaval in the south affected Jana’s income, after many of the projects of the group she was working in stopped, leaving her unable to bear the costs of mental treatment.

She said, “I have been suffering from anxiety and depression for some time now, but my mental state has deteriorated significantly since the war started. ” All this reinforces “a feeling of fear for the future,” she says.

– ‘Guilt’ –

Dr. Leila Farhoud, professor of mental health at the American University of Beirut, explains that many Lebanese suffer “from accumulated traumas of anxiety, stress, post-traumatic stress disorder, and depression.” ,” in a country that has suffered for years from conflicts such as the civil war (1975-1990).

She told Agence France-Presse, “Parents pass on their anxiety to their children as transgenerational traumas,” and what is happening now “is bringing back previous traumas, and some people suffer from panic attacks in response. “

On August 6, Israeli warplanes breached the sound barrier over Beirut at low altitude, causing two explosions that shook windows and doors, just two days after the country marked the fourth anniversary of the devastating port explosion. Beirut in 2020.

When the wall of sound was heard for the first time in the Matn district near the capital, Charbel Chaaya (23 years old), a law student in Paris who was on holiday, had a panic attack. about a month ago.

Charbel says that at that time he “wasn’t able to breathe and I felt numbness in my legs,” he said, “At first glance, you don’t understand what it is the sound, similar to what happened on August 4, 2020.”

Despite the threat of war, Charbel decided to stay in Lebanon, because “we feel guilty when we’re outside and just watching the news.” We are worried that something bad will happen to one of our family or friends,” he said.

The cross-border escalation has left at least 561 people dead in Lebanon, including 366 Hezbollah fighters and at least 116 civilians, according to an Agence France-Presse count based on Lebanese authorities and Hezbollah statements.

Israeli authorities announced that 22 soldiers and 25 civilians were killed.

– “Joint tram” –

Around the clock, the “Embrace” Mental Health Association receives calls, most of them coming from those in their twenties and thirties, as the association’s psychologist and program director, Layal Hamza, explains, that is, from a generation that did that. without experiencing the civil war and they may not have a good memory of the 2006 war, but they lived through the horror of the port explosion.

Hamza says, “The older generation may be more accustomed” to war, but that does not deny that the state of anticipation “also brings to mind collective traumas.” “

She explains, “People are now more aware of any noise” because they are “on alert.” “Anxiety levels are rising, as is fear of the future.”

In recent weeks, users on social media have appealed to people to stop using fireworks, after they are repeatedly used to celebrate secondary products or to join festivals in Beirut, because of the disturbance they caused. Video clips were circulated mocking the situation, using humor to ease tension.

Hamza explains that everyone has a different way of coping. On the one hand, there are “those who go out to celebrate,” and others who “try to connect more with those around them” to get support and ward off loneliness.

After hearing the wall of sound earlier this week, 28-year-old Andrea Fahd, whose flat was damaged in the port blast, kept the windows of her house open all day lest their glass should fall.

The young woman considers herself “lucky” as a dancer, and surrounds herself with her fellow dancers because daily movement helps take her mind off the situation.

She says, “We laugh together and move together. It’s a time of freedom that makes us forget a lot of things. “

But all this does not eliminate the fear of “uncertainty.”

“At any moment, anything could happen,” she says, asking, “If (the war) is so intense in Gaza, what will prevent it from reaching here? ”

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