The world is facing so many wars today
As I write this article. there are wars in different parts of the world: Palestine, Iraq, Yemen, Sudan, Ethiopia, Ukraine and many others including my beloved country Lebanon that has been heavily and cruelly bombarded.
I do not really understand the reasons why nations and people go into wars and conflicts since the early stages of history. The logic of wars is very alien to me. The love of power, wealth and domination is really sickening.
How many wars do we need? What is the purpose of war? Why is it so hard for us to just live in peace? What is happening to the world around us?
Too much hatred and too little love. People look for reasons to disagree rather than finding points in common to. Why don’t people shift their attention to the points that unite them instead?
Too much evil
It breaks my heart to see so much evil everywhere in the world. Wars, conflicts between nations, countries and people are spreading more all over the world, hurting and killing innocent people and leading only to destructions, not only of the ones killed or injured and their homes, but also to the survivors and the future generations to come.
Many countries all over the world have been suffering from wars for a very long time. All this had, is still having and will have detrimental effects on both people’s mental and physical health, and most importantly on that of children, the future generation. Many studies and books were written about this subject.
Impacts of wars and traumas
In his book, the Myth of Normal, Dr. Gabor Mate, a medical doctor and survivor of the holocaust, talks a lot about wars and the effect of early childhood traumas on the health in adulthood. He relates early childhood traumas to chronic diseases like arthritis and other autoimmune diseases, and some types of cancers. He also explains that chronic stress, whatever, its source, puts the nervous system on edge, distorts the hormonal apparatus, impairs immunity, promotes inflammation, and undermines physical and mental wellbeing.
So, what if this stress in not only chronic, but life threatening as the one we have been witnessing in the region for almost a year and recently wide spreading in Lebanon?
We are witnessing today, as I write and hear bombs every now and then, a big invasion in Lebanon from the worst of enemies, worse than the devil himself.
War has both immediate and long-term public health consequences. People can be killed or injured from violence itself, or can develop health problems stemming from the traumatic experience of war and the scarcity of access to adequate health care.
According to the world health organization, WHO, in times of armed conflicts, around 10% of the people who experience traumatic events will have serious mental health problems, and another 10% will develop behavior that hinder their ability to function effectively. Depression, anxiety and psychosomatic problems such as insomnia, stomach and headaches, are the most common effects.
Surprisingly, the civilians within the conflict tend to be the group with the least amount of psychological trauma, yet it can still be significant.
This may be the result of civilians’ ability to talk immediately to their social network and process their emotions, which helps to build resilience.
Threats to children and future generations
According to another study published by the American library of Medicine, war can affect people at any stage of life from infancy and early childhood to adulthood. However, children are most profoundly affected by war given the utmost importance of the early years of life. A child exposed to war is at an increased risk of infancy death or orphanhood. Also, the toxic stresses of war could develop numerous mental health issues, including post traumatic stress disorder, depression, anxiety, behavioral problems, and suicidal behavior. This is in addition to physical health problems caused by stresses and unhealthy eating patterns that people during wars tend to indulge in, and that can lead to obesity and chronic diseases like diabetes and cardiovascular diseases.
Moreover, children in war zones are robbed of the right to early childhood education, healthy nutrition and early childhood development, which will affect several outcomes later in life, from mental and physical health in adulthood. War can ripple societies for years to come by hindering healthy development and exposure to chronic stress.
War puts at stake the lives of adults, children and future generations. As we have inherited the traumas of the previous wars on Lebanon, our children will do the same, with more damage this time due to social media. The effects of wars on children are devastating and long lasting. It is a public health emergency that spans numerous years.
Wars should be put to an end
Wars in Lebanon, Gaza, Sudan, Ukraine, Iraq, Yemen and all over the world should come to an end!! This is a threat not only to the areas of conflict but to the world and the future. Wars will only create more criminal minds waiting for an opportunity to revenge, and history repeating itself again and again.
All war criminals should be immediately persecuted and stopped from killing innocents and children. World leaders should work together to stop wars all around the world and try to find some fair and peaceful resolutions to the conflicts so everyone can live in peace and we can raise health children to build a better world.