Global fear following Israel’s attacks is natural but can be harmful

This country held its psychological breath after 9/11 and waited for the next attack which never came. Still, we were damaged as a society, and anxiety and depression resulted, even among those who lost no relatives and were nowhere near Ground Zero, the World Trade Center disaster site. Everyone felt like they could be next.

I examined this national distress in my book, “False Alarm; the Truth About the Epidemic of Fear,” and I came to the conclusion that many people over-personalized the risk because of the impact of fear and worry, and some are perpetually drawn to danger, human moths to the flame. 

Joe Ledoux, a neuroscientist at NYU and a pioneer in fear research, has studied the power of fear and how it activates the human brain to experience horror or terror. I have theorized that these states of disequilibrium are contagious.

In fact, psychologist and fear researcher Elizabeth Phelps has determined that an empathic response to terror can be driven by media images. In other words, our empathy and voyeurism cause many of us to experience dangers we hear about or images of destruction that we see on a video screen. Fear memories can last for years, cause persistent anxiety and even trigger post-traumatic stress disorder. 

Don’t get me wrong, we must know the news in order to react to it and learn from it. It can bring out the best of us or the worst. We can feel empathy for victims and rally to their defense. 

But we can also decompensate and use these fears to fuel political divisiveness that tears us apart. Terrorists rely on this process. Terror uses fear and potential danger to manipulate and control the rest of us. Social media has changed the stakes entirely because a video that goes viral can snowball into a fear-based reality that takes over our baseline reality.

Of course, we cannot compare what we are experiencing here in America watching the news with what is happening in Israel. There, the stakes are much higher. The fear response is attached directly to palpable danger, with rockets exploding, murderers in the streets and almost everyone knowing someone who has died or been abducted. 

Ayelet Shmuel a psychotherapist and director of the International Resilience Center of Sderot, Israel, right by the Gaza border, told me in an interview from Israel this week that resilience in the face of an imminent need to survive involves living in a heightened state of stress where feeling rage is accepted, sleeplessness and smoking are epidemic, grieving is a shared process and personal connections are paramount. Modes of coping must involve community and family. She said the time for therapy is later.

The courage of the Israel Defense Forces and volunteer efforts to offer aid are inspiring. But the media’s obsession with the attacks is not always helpful and may interfere with coping strategies and recovery. Shmuel noted that the psychological challenges faced in trying to cope with these horrific crimes against humanity are big. But she added that “the constant exposure coming from media coverage and social media platforms make these challenges even greater.”

For the rest of us, we must remember that strong emotions such as courage, compassion, love and humor can replace the negative ones of fear and loathing. They course through the exact same centers of the brain, and you can’t experience both at the same time. We must overcome our fears for the sake of our children and ourselves. 

Fear leaders can help us through — people who we rely on for guidance or strength. Now is a good time to re-up your religious faith and to pray. Community and family are more important than ever at a time like this. Political divisiveness and name-calling erode our vision. Antisemitism is a cancer that is fed by fear. Empathy for Israel can be turned in a more positive direction in terms of solidarity and offering aid.

Israel was created to protect Jews in the wake of the Holocaust, and the best thing that Jews  —and everyone  — everywhere can do now is to draw inspiration from their courage in the face of the current threat.

Marc Siegel MD is a professor of medicine and medical director of Doctor Radio at NYU Langone Health. He is a Fox News medical correspondent and author of the new book, “COVID; The Politics of Fear and the Power of Science.”