He speaks only to himself, tears off his clothes, flinches from all human touch, cries when spoken to. Nearly 15 years ago he was found cowering in a cabinet in a tiny room in what had once been home. In that room his family was massacred. He hid in the cabinet, watching them die. Dying within himself.
Most Lebanese children have lived the horror of war. Some children get over the experience. Others don’t. Seven years later, the war still lives on in many families.
“The terrible legacy of this war has been widespread psychological impairment of children as a result of severe post-traumatic stress, loss of education, abandonment, absence and loss of parents and disability,” wrote Anna Mansour, UNICEF program officer in Lebanon.
According to a recent UNICEF report, the findings of various studies on the psychological impact of war showed that more than half the children residing in Beirut suffered from psychosomatic illnesses. Two studies indicated that one child in every 10 families exhibited behavioral problems. Seventy percent of the children between 3 and 9 had heightened anxiety-related aggressive behavior patterns; 77 percent of children between 3 and 7 were suffering clinical post-traumatic stress.
“I couldn’t sleep last night because it was so quiet and I didn’t hear the sounds of shelling and weapons firing,” a 10-year-old said shortly after the 15-year-long civil war ended.
A study by social researcher Mona Maksoud found that 97 percent of Lebanese children had lived through “at least one painful, severe strain experience.” She observed that the severe-strain experience could be noticed through “continuous enuresis, nightmares, lack of attention . . . nervous breakdowns” and severe emotional and psychological problems.
Researchers and psychologists report many forms of “aggressive” behavior they have observed are related to war experiences. These include slow learning, beating other children in the playgrounds, disorderly conduct in the classroom, non-compliance with teachers and parents, nail-biting and stuttering.
“This is a normal situation,” says Julinda Abu-Naser, child psychologist and director of the Institute for Women’s Studies in the Arab World, Lebanese-American University, Lebanon.
“These forms result from what the children have gone through . . . samples of hostility, witnessed fear, worry and insecurity. . . .”
Abu-Naser points out that children spent much of the war in cramped shelters. This deprived them of sufficient outlet for their energy and has adversely affected them emotionally and behaviorally.
