Emily DamarisIt is called one of the three hostages released after the Decree of Alto El Fuego between Israel and the terrorists of Hamas. Twenty -two years, black hair, two fingers are missing from the left hand that flew the morning of the 7th of … October when hell deployed its most sophisticated forms in the south of the country. Armed men entered Kfar Aza, his Kibutz, sowed the streets of corpses, fired his dog Choochaa, his hand flew his hand and took her. Now he teaches it in the selfies that is taken with her friends and in which she appears smiling. But when he enters home and hugs his father, he collapses.
The others are glad and at the same time look at her in a strange discomfort, as if it were a ghost, someone who returns from beyond. What the hell will he keep in his head? «We don’t know yet. We do not know your status or what we must do. All these cases are new, ”explains Einat Kaufman, a psychologist specializing in post -traumatic shock, the woman who treats victims of October 7, 2023 and, among them, to the kidnapped that Hamas released in the first reminth of November.
When she became a specialist in catastrophes psychology, Kaufman was traveling all over the world, until October 7, when the catastrophe visited her. That morning he spent her talking with two girls hidden in a closet whose parents and little sister had been killed in her presence. Since then, he has not stopped. He works with a waiting waiting to treat one of the hostages that terrorists release after 480 days of kidnapping.
“What is the first thing to do with them?”
“The first thing to do with a kidnapped is to ask you to the smallest things to have a certain awareness that they have control over themselves.” It must be understood that for more than one year, another person has decided for them everything: when to sleep, when to go to the bathroom, when to put in this or another position, when to cry … they did not let them cry. The first thing they should understand is that they send again about their life and that is understood in the decisions of the smallest gestures in which they have to participate. Do not get into a hospital; They are asked if you want to enter the hospital, if you want water, if you want to eat, take them blood or take medicine. They have to learn again that they are people. That has to understand the whole team that works with them.
The Israel government designed protocols to receive the released and, despite what one can imagine, in the first response line are not mental health teams. They watch them, but from afar.
«Euphoric, carried by adrenaline. But then that goes down and jumps the trauma »
Amir Kivroy
Psychiatrist, director of the Geha Mental Health Hospital in Petah Tikva
«The most important thing in the first moments is that they go with their families and friends. Then we can intervene if we detect that they need help, but the treatments should not interfere with the natural healing of their wound ». He explains it Amir Kivroy, Psychiatrist and director of Geha, one of the main mental health hospitals of the country in Petah Tikva, east of Tel Aviv. “We have been preparing for this moment for a whole year,” confesses the doctor.
Kaufman recognizes the difficulties of the task ahead, although the cases are unequal. «It has more to do with the intensity of trauma than with the time they have passed in captivity. Time reinforces trauma and deepens the wound, because the human being can get used to anything, also to the bad ».
The doctor excuses himself, because he cannot give many data, but suggests that her patients suffered teasing – “they were forced to make gestures to receive food like dogs” -, in addition to violence, sexual assaults and psychological torture. «Some have had to do for 24 hours the images of the murders of October 7. They told them that they had killed their family, they were told that they were going to return to them. In the case of the first three liberated last week, Hamas gave them a bag with a kind of release diploma – firmed by the Red Cross – with a map of Palestine and photographs of them during captivity. For Kaufman is far from being a kind gift. «It is torture, since it means reinforcing what happened. They are tattooing.
Paradoxically, freedom, so desired by them, can be difficult to accept. In the scenario described by the doctor, the patient does not know if he is dreaming. “They do not know one hundred percent if they are free or that they are imagining it.” This doubt assails them in the most prosaic moments. “Eating a fried potato they can wonder if they are actually eating that rich potato or they are dreaming that they eat that fried potato.” They have dreamed it so many times. “The treatment can last a lifetime and take several hours a day in some cases.” Group therapy, individual, in the sea, with animals … some are dedicated exclusively to recover.
“You never have to judge them”
The paths through which the mind runs are mysterious, but professionals like Kaufman know what you never have to do. «They should not be told that everything is fine, that everything is going well or that we understand what has happened because it is not true. And above all, never, never, we should never judge them ».
“You have to ask them first about the little gestures: if you want water or go to the bathroom”
Einat Kaufman
Psychologist Specialist in Postraumatic Shock in Israel
The images that appear on television can give a wrong measure of the trauma suffered by these people. In some of the videos they are seen in an enviable mood. «What happens is that they are taken by adrenaline and are really euphoric. Then, everything goes down. The amygdala stops working so much and that is when the trauma jumps, ”he explains.
And the duel, and the guilt. All victims feel guilty, to survive, for having received less damage, for having done something or not doing it. And, like others, they have to pass a duel. In the case of some hostages, the duel has been delayed, because many leave without knowing what happened. “What we have digested in a year, they have to assimilate it suddenly: their country is injured, their loved ones are dead, their home has disappeared.”
Between Stockholm and Homeland
“Is Stockholm syndrome common to kidnappers?”
—Isuce very often, not a total adhesion, but a certain sympathy for some of them. It is something very difficult to treat. Sometimes they think that this or that was not so bad because it gave them another water drop or because it hit them a little less.
“Can you get the almost cinematographic case that any hostage ends up supporting Hamas?”
“How in Homeland?”
“Similar to.”
“I don’t think it happens and, in any case, I hope that Mossad and intelligence services are pending this.”
“Then it’s not impossible?”
“When your brain washed for a year, there is nothing impossible.” It can happen any thing.
#return #life #Hamass #hostages #learn #people
