A cow that managed to calm a warrior’s anxiety attack

A., 23, served as a reserve officer during the war in Gaza. During the days of respite between the many rounds of combat, he traveled with his girlfriend to the north. The two stopped at one of the cafes adjacent to a livestock farm, where they noticed a large cow.

A says that the encounter with the cow reminded him of a difficult experience from a military operation in Gaza, during which a cow came close to the force and exploded due to a bomb planted there. Despite the many difficult sights he saw during the war, he remembers this image in particular. He adds that the quiet presence of the cow he saw on the road in the north aroused his curiosity due to the contrast it created in his mind with the difficult image that was burned into his consciousness.

In the weeks after the visit, he repeatedly traveled to the same area in the north. He says that during one of the trips he experienced an anxiety attack that manifested itself in a rapid pulse, a feeling of suffocation and sudden alertness. “As if I’m in enemy territory again,” says A.

Again, he chose to reach the area of ​​the cow he saw. “The rate of her breathing, the slow movement and the fact that she was just standing there really affected me physically – everything suddenly calmed down. The breathing started to become slower, the shoulders loosened, and the whole body dropped from the constant alertness.”

A few weeks later, A contacted Thelma Thomson, the manager of the farm and was interested in the place. He told her about the exciting encounter with the cow, whose name, it turned out, was Nessie. When he realized that it was a therapeutic farm, he asked to join the place as a volunteer. He rented an apartment in the area and started coming regularly, between one reserve round and another.

“It’s hard for me to describe it in words, but it was a physical and emotional feeling of liberation”

Since last October, A has participated in seven reserve rounds in Gaza. According to him, he found peace and quiet right next to Nessi the cow. “One time I just sat next to her and she put her head on me. It’s hard for me to describe it in words but it was a physical and emotional feeling of release. In the reserves I had to hold my body, my fears, my soldiers. Here I felt I could let go.”

Thelma Thomson explains that cows are endowed with emotional qualities that contribute to recovery: “A cow does not rush, does not judge and does not expect, she is simply present. This presence allows the person sitting next to her to stop being alert. The body relearns what rest is.”

According to her, in the last year, more and more fighters are arriving in the country asking for a safe space. “People think they come to volunteer, but in reality they get no less than they give. Sometimes the animals encourage a process that no therapeutic conversation can produce.”

A. points out that even though he did not seek official mental health treatment, his stay with Nessie changed his ability to cope: “It’s not a magic solution, but here at least I realized that my body doesn’t have to be in combat mode all the time.”