Jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire
by Dr Ahmed Hankir, Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Carrick Institute for Graduate Studies (USA), Core Trainee in Psychiatry, Leeds and York Partnership Trust (UK)
“It was like jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire,” my mother would often say to those who would ask her what it was like for her when she migrated from Beirut to Belfast in the early 1980s. This was during The Troubles in Northern Ireland and the brutal and bloody civil war in Lebanon, which is when the massacres of Palestinians in the refugee camps Sabra and Shatila in Beirut took place.
There is something singular about living in a war zone and experiencing conflict at such a large scale that has a profound effect on a person’s psyche and renders an indelible mark (often scar) on your consciousness. You can’t really explain it with words, you must experience it. For me, I will never forget 18th April 1996, which was during Operation Grapes of Wrath, the name of that instalment of war between Israel and Lebanon. I was living in Lebanon at the time and remember a father who had returned to his home in Qana, a provincial village in the South which had been reduced to rubble due to air raids. Among the debris, he discovered the dismembered limbs and corpses of his children and wife. His wailing still pierces my soul even today. 800 Lebanese civilians who had taken refuge in a United Nations compound were also killed and four Fijian United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon soldiers were seriously injured.
“Everyone has a breaking point, week or strong, cowardly or courageous, war frightened everyone witless,” said C.S Myers in The Lancet[1]. Karam et al published a paper titled ‘Major depression and external stressors: the Lebanon Wars’ in the European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience[2]. They examined the effect of war events and pre-war depression on the prevalence of major depression during war in Lebanon and revealed that individual levels of exposure to this type of conflict and a history of pre-war depression predict the development of depression during war. This fact has far-reaching consequence. For example, many of the new generation in Lebanon were raised by parents who endured the Lebanon Wars and thus their upbringing may have been influenced by psychopathology, indirectly if not directly. My family was no exception and this was certainly a contributing factor towards my decision to enter the Royal College of Psychiatrists training scheme in England. I saw firsthand how distressing mental illness can be for sufferers and their loved ones and I wanted to do something about it.
Today, 1 in 4 people in Lebanon are Syrian and whenever I travel to Beirut I witness the cruel effects of trauma on the psychological well-being of these people. I’m hoping that my personal experiences will enable me to identify with Syrians and other people from vulnerable groups who are under mental distress and empower me to heal their psychological wounds in some way or another.
Suicide Hotline Lebanon: 1564. The lines are working from 12 P.M until 2 A.M on all week days.
References
[1] C.S. Myers, (1915) A Contribution to the Study of Shell Shock. The Lancet, 316-320.
[2] Karam, E.G., Howard, D.B., Karam, N. (1998) Major depression and external stressors: the Lebanon Wars. Eur Arch Psychiatry Clin Neurosci.248(5):225-30.