The PTSD-stricken Israeli soldiers who wake up screaming

Another veteran affected by PSTD is Shmuel,30, from Netanya. He was totally traumatised by his army experiences and has been suffering from PTSD for the past three years. His mother Miriam, a professional dancer, is divorced and lives with her elderly, sick mother and her carer. Miriam has been tearing her hair out with worry for her son.

An introspective and sensitive young man, Shmuel lived at home at first, but then left and spent his days strolling around Tel Aviv, sofa surfing in friends’ apartments, unable to settle anywhere, unable to work.

He often loses his phone and Miriam, who can ill afford it, keeps buying him new ones. The problem is compounded by the fact that his grandmother’s carers are not keen on him living in their home, and find his presence disruptive.

Neither his father nor his brother will help. His father offers tough love: if Shmuel doesn’t want to help himself, he is no longer prepared to take care of him. Both father and son, according to Miriam, refuse to acknowledge his condition and Shmuel himself has always refused to seek outside help.

In Israel many people may not understand how deeply this illness may affect sufferers, especially if they have not experienced it themselves or have managed to deal with it successfully. What triggered PTSD in Shmuel?

All Miriam knows was that something happened to him in the Carmel. Shmuel is not alone. Army veteran Arieh, an ebullient chef in Tel Aviv, recalled serving in Lebanon during the war in 2006. He was suddenly called to the front line.

Even today he can describe in minute detail the fear, the guns, the silence, the birds. His ID tag was in his boots. He remembers the rabbi praying on the front line.

“I don’t remember what he prayed, but it was a joyful song,” says Arieh.

"When the more recent missiles struck I was so glad I was not called up for reserve duty. I was too old.”

Arieh believes some 50 per cent of the country’s veterans suffer from PTSD. That is a broad statement that is difficult to corroborate, of course.

But he adds: “The army discharges them (soldiers) without any psychological help, although there is a social service unit attached to the army for those who want to take advantage of it.”

He always knows when he has a “bad turn” coming on. “I can’t explain it exactly, but any slight noise might upset me.

Yet after Lebanon I went back, put on my chef’s hat and uniform and pushed everything out of my mind. It was more difficult, though, for my assistant. Once triggered, there’s no way he can push the memory out of his mind. This is not something he can manage. He shouts and gets excited.”

When I asked both parties whether they had personally received any help from the army, Miriam said Shmuel was too traumatised to ask and Arieh, in his typical life-and-soul-of-the-party manner, shrugged it off.

Both Arieh’s mother Dvora, retired from a career in the beauty industry, and his aunt Liora, a former English teacher who adopted Russian families in the past and now plans to assist new Ukrainian immigrants settle in Ramat-Gan, agree that the army certainly changed their former combat soldier sons.

They said that for years Israeli soldiers, even if they did not encounter combat themselves, emerged from army service totally different from their former childish, innocent selves.

That may be inevitable, but when I told Liora about Shmuel’s problems, she was shocked to learn he was 30 and had suffered PTSD for the last three years.

“I was sure he was a newly retired soldier, aged 21 or so. Just imagine how horrific this long-term situation is for

Shmuel and his family. It is a very heartbreaking and worrying situation. Your child is out there in the streets, may deteriorate to drugs, and who knows what else?”

When I told Liora I wanted to write about this situation, she pointed to the research on the subject of PTSD, including David Grossman’s book To the End of the Land.

Then she gave an ironic laugh: “I guess if you write on Israeli soldiers experiencing PTSD you may get talk back from an English reader who will write: ‘OK, so tell the f***ing Israelis to retreat from the occupied territories and give a state to the Palestinians!’”

When I last spoke to her, Miriam had thankfully found temporary accommodation for herself and Shmuel, but his PTSD has still not been treated.

She has since been given details of organisations that may offer support, and has turned to Facebook for help. She hopes she is now on the path to help her son resolve his issues.

Some names have been changed to protect personal identities