Why is it that, although terrorism and war are not infrequent in Israel, the number of IDF soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is actually amongst the lowest in militaries around the world?
In 2013 the Israel Defense Forces Medical Corps Mental Health Department released a study on PTSD with staggering statistics. For example, following the 2006 Second Lebanon War, 1.5 percent of Israeli soldiers in mandatory service and in the reserves were diagnosed with PTSD. Some 2.9% of the IDF servicemen who took part in the military campaign sought psychological help after the war, but were not diagnosed as suffering from PTSD. In contrast, a U.S. Army Medical Corps study done in approximately the same time period, found that about 8% of U.S. soldiers who served in Iraq and Afghanistan had been diagnosed as suffering from PTSD.
According to the IDF study, PTSD diagnoses in other militaries worldwide ranged from 2% to 17% of troops who participated in combat.
How can this be? Is it special training received in the IDF? Or is it something else?
Israel has developed world class expertise in the treatment of trauma but it is not some special prevention regimen that makes the difference. It isn’t something different in Israeli soldiers. Our soldiers are people from all backgrounds, from countries around the world. Yes, their training is not the same as in other armies but much of it is very similar and the differences are not enough to account for the statistics.
Israeli soldiers aren’t different. It is Israel itself that is different.
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