A psychologist explains about the phenomenon of Romi Gonen

In an interview she gave to the “Ovda” program (Thursday), Romi Gonen told about the moments of the kidnapping, and also spoke openly about the difficult experiences she went through in captivity, which also included sexual abuse from several captors. In one of the segments she told about the physical phenomenon that happened after she was attacked in the bathroom by One of her subjects: “When he came out of the bathroom and I went out after him – in one second, a ringing in my ears and then I don’t hear anything… I feel like the whole world is spinning around me and I’m completely deaf.”

We talked to an expert to understand what exactly happens in such chilling moments when the mind cannot bear what is happening to the body. “It is very difficult to voluntarily block the sense of hearing,” says Dr. Eidit Gutman, a clinical psychologist from Tel Aviv University. “We intuitively close our eyes when something scares or discourages us, but covering our ears is already an action that requires free movement of the limbs, and even this does not necessarily help fully. Assault survivors sometimes feel that they close their eyes and try not to think and not to be in their body in such a terrible state, eyes can be closed but hearing cannot, so the body does it by itself.”

She explains that hearing is a very basic sense that connects us to the world: “In space or in dungeons, for example, there is no hearing, and we are alone. When it comes to the trauma of relationships – when a human being abuses you, the need to withdraw from the interaction is clear, and such action may be essential for mental survival.”

The mental aspect that affects the body’s senses

She adds that physiologically, what happens in the body in such a situation is that the nervous system actually has difficulty deciphering the signals transmitted through the brain, which actually results in sensory impairment.

Dr. Gutman compares the matter to an abscess that forms in the body during an infection. It is also very similar psychologically in situations of trauma like the one Gonen experienced, during which the body makes use of a natural mechanism, but after the trauma there will be a need for mental therapy to help drain this mental ‘abscess’.”

In addition, she notes that it is possible that the hearing block allowed Romi to focus on the things that gave her hope in those inhuman moments, such as looking out the window and seeing a beautiful sky that reminded her that there was a normal life outside, and that her family was waiting for her.