When Israel declared war on Hamas following the Palestinian militant group’s Oct. 7 attacks on the country, impacts were immediate. Nearly 1,200 people were killed and 240 Israeli hostages were taken during Hamas’ invasion.
As of Tuesday, the Hamas-ruled Health Ministry estimated nearly 22,000 total deaths in Gaza — many Palestinian — though their data does not distinguish between civilians and militants. Negotiations for hostages have been ongoing since then, with some released during a temporary cease-fire at the end of November. Meanwhile, around 85% of Palestinians in Gaza have been displaced.
While the war remains contained to the Middle East, the fallout can be felt even in the United States, where calls for a cease-fire have spread through social media and in-person protests. Suspected hate crime has also risen in the country since Oct.7, NPR reports.
A PEW research study shows that many Americans are taking a stance on the war, from the Biden Administration’s approach to which entity should shoulder the blame — Israel or Hamas.
With the digital information dumps happening through official channels — major news outlets like NPR, The New York Times, and The Washington Post — and unofficial pathways such as Instagram and TikTok, updates are nearly impossible to miss. Social media in particular has been a hotbed for information sharing, whether factual or not.
Images and stories can get graphic, as well, with much content flowing relatively unrestricted, and experts say this can ultimately impact a person’s mental wellbeing.
Defining Secondary Traumatic Stress
Keith Brotheridge, a training coordinator at the Normal-based nonprofit The Baby Fold, said this will likely have repercussions down the line.
“I can only infer that if you're going down into social media and news media outlets, you're viewing horrific images, you're reading horrific stories,” he said. “That's going to potentially put someone at risk for literally developing post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms.”
In other words, viewing or reading material about others’ trauma can start to cause trauma. This is called secondary trauma, or sometimes, vicarious trauma.
Thema Bryant directs the Culture and Trauma Research Laboratory housed at Pepperdine University. She said this type of secondhand trauma can display in a variety of ways, from nightmares, hypervigilance and intrusive thoughts to serious mental health conditions.
“It can also show up with depression, it can show up with anxiety, increased anxiety, some people may be feeling grief and mourning, even if they didn't know the specific people personally,” she said. “That sense of collective grief and feeling the losses of the many lives that have been taken.”
This isn’t the first war to have such an effect on the American people. Just a few years ago, when Russia invaded Ukraine, there was a similar U.S. response.
Before social media, Brotheridge said research shows that secondary trauma is real. He pointed to research following 9/11, which shows the lasting effects the terrorist attack had on the country. Much of the research focuses on mental health professionals who develop symptoms as a result of listening to their clients discuss that day.
Not to mention the intergenerational trauma associated with the Israel-Hamas war in particular, which comes after decades of hostility.
“This conflict hasn't just been the last month and a half, it's been hundreds of years,” Brotheridge explained, adding that it can dredge up inherited trauma for Jews and Palestinians alike.
Bryant said she’s already heard from her clients about their Secondary Traumatic Stress from the Israel-Hamas war.
Local impacts
Brotheridge, on the other hand, said he hasn’t heard from people in the local community about this being an issue. Neither has Bloomington-Normal resident Meryl Brown, a member of the Jewish faith and Moses Montefiore Temple. On a personal level, though, Brown said she’s been hit hard.
“Israel is a place that I haven't been there in many, many, many years, and yet when you go, it feels like home and home is hurting,” she said.
Her mind is frequently on the war, Brown said. All this, while life in Bloomington-Normal is going well. She said it’s confusing, and she’s not sure how to describe her emotional state.
It also feels like no one in the area is talking about it, Brown said. The congregation will talk about it, a neighbor reached out after Oct. 7, but she hasn’t heard much else. While Brown said she laments the lack of conversation, she added that she dislikes conversing about it. Right now, she mostly discusses with her therapist.
“I don’t know what I need,” she said.
Bryant at the Culture and Trauma Research Lab said behavior like this is also common. Another symptom of secondary trauma can be avoidance. People may tune out of the news and social media entirely to protect themselves.
For Bloomington-Normal resident Omar Khokhar, it’s a little harder to ignore. He knows Israelis and Palestinians who are living the trauma of this war firsthand. He’s reaching out to them, and keeping himself informed.
“I can't imagine the abject terror that they must have felt that day, along with the constant fear of attack,” he said. “To live under that kind of mental stress is mind-boggling to me.”
Lingering with him are depictions of children in the war. Khokhar said these stories affect him “viscerally.”
“My mind can't even get to some of those stories,” he said. “It just short-circuits, and I hug my kids tighter.”
Community support
Khokhar said some of the community events, such as the mid-November Vigil for Peace, hosted by Bloomington-Normal Not in Our Town, have lifted his spirits.
Rabbi Rebecca Dubowe at the Moses Montefiore Temple in Bloomington helped organize the Vigil for Peace. She said other faith-based organizations assisted. Dubowe said it’s relationships like these that make it so “we don’t feel that alone.”
“We've been just been very resilient,” Dubowe said of the congregation.
Similar to Khokhar, Dubowe has a personal connection to the conflict.
“I do have family and friends that live in the land of Israel, and I worry about their safety,” she said. “I'm also equally troubled by many of the victims of this war, including the Palestinians.”
Because of her role at the temple, Dubowe is uniquely positioned to help others. She checks in on the congregants and has spoken with area college students to get them support.
“I've recognized that my role is to be a comforter and just to be present,” she said.
Trauma lab director Thema Bryant recommended that people lean on their communities during this time. She encouraged people to reach out to their neighbors and to get professional help in some cases.
“It is important to consider self-care and community care … especially people who consider themselves advocates or wanting to raise awareness because this continues over time,” she said. “The only way for it to be sustainable is for you to not neglect yourself.”
