The Way Out

1 May 2024 The Way Out The Way Out A raw and honest account of one man's journey through chronic illness, trauma, and the search for true healing.

1 May 2024 The Way Out The Way Out A raw and honest account of one man's journey through chronic illness, trauma, and the search for true healing.

It's a harsh realization: you pull through life with chronic illness, trying to survive day by day, but you are not living.

My "TED-worthy" story that got me into all major news outlets in Israel a while back was a promising one. A young man, on his way to becoming a doctor, fell ill, succumbing to illness, only to find himself fighting an uphill battle against healthcare, like an armorless Don Quixote poking against a hospital wall.

He was also a hero, a martyr, and a victim of this evil life. He had an "incident" in his army service while saving the lives of others as a medic, defending his country. No word about mental health, no PTSD in this lexicon, only an injury leading to a mysterious illness taking almost a decade of his young life.

He was so empowered by the end of his journey that he not only diagnosed and rehabilitated himself but also taught himself to walk and talk when he was almost 28. Using this inertia, he helped empower others sharing their bedridden fate and even extended beyond the chronically ill community to empower others to leave their comfort zones, confront their fears, be more resilient, and thrive. He founded startups and NGOs, spoke on the world stage, wrote books, and was always doing.

This was a beautiful and compelling story, but it wasn't the whole story.

Let's rewrite it using the facts of the matter: he joined the army at 18 since he had to, stupidly tried to fit in, and waived his medical right to have a desk job, only to find himself on the battlefield a few short months later. While doing so, he was so self-canceling that he spent his short and precious vacations from the army as a volunteer medic at the Israeli branch of the Red Cross, only to encounter more death, destruction, and trauma. His body failed him; he got gaslighted, ignored, and neglected. Only a year after bein