Suicide a ‘delayed trauma response,’ experts warn after Oct 7 survivor takes her life
Although the first months after the October 7 attacks saw fewer suicide-related calls to Israel’s national emergency line, the number of suicide cases may increase as the war continues, Israeli researchers warned on Monday.
The announcement came one day after October 7 survivor Shirel Golan killed herself on her 22nd birthday.
Golan was at the Nova Music Festival, an all-night rave attended by 3,500 people at Kibbutz Re’im. The festival became a killing field where 364 people were massacred and 40 others were taken hostage. Of all the locations attacked by Hamas on October 7, the highest death toll was at the music festival.
“An increase in suicide can be a delayed response to the powerful national trauma that the war brings,” said Dr. Shiri Daniels, the National Professional Director of the Israeli ERAN Association for emotional first aid.
Daniels was part of a team of researchers from the University of Haifa, Tel Aviv University, Columbia University, and the Israeli College of Management who analyzed all the calls to ERAN’s hotline in the three months after the October 7 attack. Their findings were recently published in the peer-reviewed journal, JAMA Psychiatry.
‘We Expect An increase In Suicide Risk Rates’
The researchers found there was a decline of suicide-related calls following the attack as compared to months before the attack – from 1,887 calls in the three months before the war to 1,663 calls total in the three months after, in contrast to sharp increase in the overall number of calls.
But then the numbers of suicide-related calls began to grow, too.
“One possible reason for the decrease in suicide-related calls in the immediate period after October 7th is the increased social cohesion that sometimes occurs in the initial stage of a national crisis,” said Dr. Joy Benatov from the Special Education Department at the University of Haifa, who led the research.
“But the effect of this cohesion dissipates with the prolongation of crises,’ Dr. Benatov adds. ‘In light of the continuation of the war and national crisis, we expect an increase in suicide risk rates, as we saw in studies conducted after the September 11 terrorist attack in New York,” she added.
‘She Looked Unfocused’
Golan was rescued from the Nova massacre by a police officer from the Bedouin village of Rahat Remo Salman el-Hozayel, one of the heroes of a documentary film, “In the Same Boat,” which tells stories of Israeli-Arab citizens who saved lives on October 7.
“She looked unfocused, was jumping from theme to theme,” Roman Kovgan, line producer of the documentary who interviewed Golan in March, recalled to The Press Service of Israel. “It was evident she was not in a good psychological state.”
Kovgan also recalled meeting Golan again one day before the documentary’s October 7 premiere in Tel Aviv.
“She looked even more depressed and said it would be too hard for her to see the movie, she was gathering all her strength to get through the anniversary,” Kovgan said.
Golan’s family said Shirel developed Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder but never received adequate state assistance for the necessary treatment.
At least 1,200 people were killed, and 252 Israelis and foreigners were taken hostage in Hamas’s attacks on Israeli communities near the Gaza border on October 7. Of the 97 remaining hostages, more than 30 have been declared dead. Hamas has also been holding captive two Israeli civilians since 2014 and 2015, and the bodies of two soldiers killed in 2014.
As well as stress the use of illegal drugs and alcohol can also lead to unnatural death too.