Against the background of the current security tensions on the northern border, there are those who were there already decades ago and are still dealing with the costs of the war, 18 years after the Second Lebanon War, the wounded of the war still remember every moment of it.
Uri Lerner, one of the most prominent voices in the community of military post-trauma survivors in Israel, who was among the first to voice the cry of the transparent wounded in the IDF. In an interview with the Ha-Gesher podcast - talking about post-trauma, he shares about the inspiring journey of his life.
Since then, for many years, Lerner has been accompanied by, Hundreds of IDF wounded who are dealing with post-trauma on a military background.
A few days after the 7/10 attack, he realized that the members of the standby classes who fought against evil and saw the worst of all, did not receive help and mental support, he recruited himself and became a volunteer projector of the rehabilitation division of the Ministry of Defense to support the members of the standby classes.
See death in the eyes
"I'm standing on the deck, there was a barrage of 14 Cornet missiles, when I'm standing on the deck I already see a tank in front receiving, then you see this fireball of the Cornet that entered this tank, you don't have to understand anymore, you already understand voila, another second it With us and after a second it really was with us yes and it was."
"Amidst the screams before the impact of the cornet, he shouts, diamond, diamond worked, those who can get out of the vessel, get out of the vessel and three manage to get out completely. I'm standing on the deck, what's the feeling? You have a heat that goes from your buttocks to your spine, the wave of the page that throws you It's a few meters in the air, like in the movies, I find myself lying on my stomach and realize that in the end voila, we ate. We were hurt. It takes you a few seconds to reset, I look and I realize voila there are people missing, they are inside the vessel. Against all logic I decide, It's like it's very stressful, very scary, this story that you understand, you don't understand yet what you're going towards, because in the end you don't know what's going on inside the vessel.
"You open your eyes and it's like you understand what you're seeing but you don't want to understand till the end.
There are no feelings at this stage, I am completely sealed and there is a very serious bloodbath there inside the vessel"
"Dubi Ganish, I have been serving with him since the age of 19, it is not easy to suddenly see your friend as an irregular.
We were injured at the age of 36. To suddenly see a helpless friend.
You know it hurts him that it's hard for him, you see in his eyes, you know, there's no need to talk, there's no need to say too much.
It shrinks you, it shrinks you.
On a leg like that, it's accompanied by sinews, it's not easy to see these sights, of course it's accompanied by a smell, the gunpowder with the blood and the heat that mixes, it doesn't leave, this smell doesn't leave, it's like such a trigger."
The post-traumatic stress disorder arises
"Very quickly you start to realize that there is something, I wake up at night, vomit, have diarrhea, I sweat, the body screams, it throws all the charges out. So on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday night. I tell myself a story, maybe I ate something spoiled and the body is like that ..."
"Very quickly I understand, in some inner dialogue. I understand that Vala. There is something, I don't know what to call it, but there is something and I am turning for help. All the way from 2006 to 2023. The word shame, it does not meet me. I Not giving her even an ounce of space. If there's anyone who should be ashamed, it's not me, it's other bodies who should be ashamed. I wasn't ashamed."
"When I analyze this situation then I finally understand, I jumped over a very big barrier that I didn't experience, but my friends or other people I talk to experienced it. Feelings of guilt, why did I do this and could I have acted differently, and why did he do Like that. I never had this word called if. I didn't have a second of, if it would have worked differently, or if I would have done it this way. It's bland. It's not true all these things so straight away it's like I jumped some hurdle that catches you a lot People with these feelings of guilt, with this shame. I wasn't there."
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Post Trauma