I feel overwhelmed and traumatized by the images and stories from Gaza

I can’t sleep thinking about everything I’ve seen and read about Gaza. It’s overwhelming me.

I can’t enjoy daily life anymore. I’m crushed by helplessness. I feel like we’re living in some bad movie. I’m scared.

I’m from Poland and I have no one close to talk to. Even though people here care, everyone lives their own life. I’m also afraid of the war in Ukraine next door.

I’m a medical student and usually I try to find meaning in my studies, but after seeing death and hunger I don’t see the point anymore. I’ve even thought about visiting a psychologist or taking antidepressants because it’s weighing me down so much.

I have intrusive thoughts: when I see people, I see suffering; when I see a dog or cat here, I imagine another starving animal from a video or stuck under rubble; when I see children, I imagine burned or injured children. Since I saw these images I feel like a different person.

I am disgusted by humanity. I feel we have lost our humanity — how many excuses people can find to kill others on a mass scale shocks me. A world where some can be killed and it’s justified by imperialist goals for others is not a world I can accept. Yet my hands are tied.

I’m writing because I don’t know what else to do. Does anyone else feel this way? How do you cope? Any advice on dealing with intrusive images and the sense of being traumatized would mean a lot.