The battle that never ends: a quarter of Israelis suffer from PTSD | The latest data

Three years into the war, updated data reveals that a quarter of Israelis suffer from post-trauma, a sharp rise in depression and anxiety, and a surge in suicidal calls to the ERAN hotline. The national professional director of ERAN: "We are living in a 'pretend routine'."

Three years after the October 7 massacre and the "Swords of Iron" war, updated data paints a complex picture of widespread mental distress among the Israeli public. A longitudinal study by the Brookdale Institute, conducted among over 3,500 participants, reveals that in the later waves of the study (after operations "Roaring Lion" and "Like a Lion"), over a third of respondents reported clinical-level depressive symptoms (about 35%-37%) and about a quarter reported clinical-level anxiety symptoms (about 24%-25%). More than half of the respondents experienced at least some level of mental distress. Concurrently, data from the ERAN helpline shows a worrying increase in the rate of calls related to suicidality, from 2% in the first year to 2.8% in the third year. Alongside this, there was a decrease in calls about anxiety, trauma, and loss, and a sharp increase in calls about loneliness, which reached 41% of calls in the last year. Dr. Shiri Daniels, the national professional director of ERAN, says: "We are living in a 'pretend routine.' Most of us continue to function, but functioning is not necessarily evidence of mental well-being." The study also reveals that 8% of respondents wanted to receive treatment but did not do so due to structural barriers such as cost and long waiting lists, and that a significant group of people suffering from depression is entirely unaware of it.