The Impact of Combat Intensity and Deployment Stressors on Veteran Post-Traumatic Stress

What Really Stays with Soldiers After War? New Study Reveals Surprising Findings.

A groundbreaking new study, conducted in collaboration with Healing in Nature (HiN), sheds light on how intense combat and personal stress during deployment shape the mental health of Israeli combat veterans. This timely research, based on soldiers and reservists who participated in recent HiN programs, provides crucial insight into what truly contributes to post-traumatic stress in the aftermath of war.

Not Just the Battlefield

While traditional understandings of PTSD focus on direct combat exposure, this study shows that psychological trauma is not just about firefights or injuries. In fact, the most powerful predictor of posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) was not physical danger—it was emotional: veterans who worried about their partners and loved ones during deployment reported significantly higher levels of stress and anxiety.

Two Worlds, Two Realities

The study included 86 veterans, both conscripts (younger active-duty soldiers) and older reservists, who served in the intense conflict following the October 7th, 2023, attack on Israel. Conscripts faced more direct combat and urban warfare, while reservists—often with families and careers back home—reported deeper concerns about how their absence affected loved ones.

Key Findings:

• Concern for Partners was the strongest predictor of posttraumatic symptoms and anxiety, even more than being shot at or witnessing death.

• Urban Combat and fear of death or abduction were also linked to increased symptoms, particularly avoidance and emotional distress.

• Injuries or near-death experiences led to more vivid, intrusive trauma memories.

• PTSD symptoms followed different short-term paths: some improved, some worsened, and others remained stable—regardless of age, background, or support systems.

Why This Matters

These findings challenge the idea that PTSD is just about what happens in combat. They reveal how modern warfare affects soldiers at a deep emotional and relational level—especially when family and life back home are disrupted or uncertain.

HiN’s Role

HiN provided a safe and supportive environment for these veterans to begin unpacking their experiences. By combining nature-based healing with rigorous research, HiN continues to offer life-changing support to those who’ve served in high-intensity combat situations.

As wars grow more complex, this research is a call to widen our understanding of trauma—and to ensure that healing includes both the battlefield and the home front.

*The paper is currently undergoing expert peer review and is being considered for publication in a leading psychiatry journal

Connections between combat experiences and PTSD: green = battle exposure, yellow = deployment fears, white = life/family worries, red = posttraumatic symptoms.. Thicker lines show stronger links; partner-related worries are most strongly tied to symptoms.

Acknowledgments:

We thank Rotem Asher, Lee Zofin, Bar Grisaru, Sonia Leshenko, Ma’ayan Elbag, Ma’ayan Lange, and Hagar Samuel for their help with data collection. We are grateful to Omri Barkin, Roei Friedberg, and the Wallis family for founding Healing in Nature and enabling this study. Most importantly, we thank our participants for their time, effort, and service.