Warriors who lose a friend in combat suffer emotional shock and trauma that lasts for years

"The soldiers who lost a friend during a battle tend to avoid dealing with the loss on a daily basis, because this occupation is too difficult for them. Official events like Memorial Day allow soldiers to face the pain and mourn their fallen comrades," noted Prof. Shimshon Rubin, head of the Center for the Study of Loss, Bereavement and Mental Resilience at the University of Haifa where the study was conducted

Warriors who have lost friends during a battle suffer emotional shock and trauma that last for years, but contrary to the common perception, the loss does not increase the risk of post-traumatic reactions - according to preliminary findings of a large-scale study conducted at the International Center for the Study of Loss, Bereavement and Mental Resilience at the University of Haifa.

"The significance of the findings is that the loss of a comrade during a battle has hidden injuries that sometimes last for years and currently do not receive enough research or clinical attention," said Prof. Shimshon Rubin, head of the center.

In the current study, conducted by psychologists Shahar Mor Yosef and Yoav Laron, under the guidance of Prof. Rubin and Prof. Danny Koren from the University of Haifa and with the assistance of Prof. Ehud Klein, head of the psychiatric division at the Rambam Medical Center, 60 IDF soldiers were examined, half of whom lost a friend during A combat event and it was a follow-up study to a previous study conducted at the center and found that soldiers who lost friends attribute a lot of mental suffering to this experience.

The current study showed that, although it was not a case of post-traumatic syndromes, the fighters suffered from damage to the level of emotional adaptation that was usually expressed in shock and shock that sometimes lasted for years. It also became clear that unlike mourning for a close friend or family member, which accompanies the grieving person all the time, mourning for a unit colleague arises mainly around events related to service in the army such as memorial days, unit meetings, reserves and the like.

"Already in previous studies we found that events and meetings within the military framework were of great importance. The soldiers who lost a friend during a battle tend to avoid dealing with the loss because it is too difficult for them. The military events allow the soldiers to meet the pain and mourn their fallen comrades", noted Prof. Rubin.

Another finding that emerges from the current study is that the loss of a friend in battle also causes damage to self-concept. According to the researchers, the level of adaptation and dealing with the loss in the long term is particularly strongly related to the ability to find meaning in the loss of the friend and in this case too, official events such as Memorial Day are very important in providing an opportunity to re-touch the issue of loss and its meaning for the warrior.
Despite the centrality of the topic of bereavement in the army in Israeli society, according to Prof. Rubin, there is not enough research in this field, which although it is similar in many aspects to bereavement and loss in general, it also has unique characteristics. "Bereavement during a combat event has unique characteristics that are more difficult to distinguish and can go on for years without the person receiving the appropriate treatment," he concluded.