Journalist Suffers PTSD from Covering War in Gaza, 'Hell on Earth': 'You Can’t Escape' (Exclusive)

"I started to realize the impact that being a war correspondent can have on your mind,” Trey Yingst tells PEOPLE

• Trey Yingst suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder after spending a decade as a war correspondent

• The journalist is learning to navigate his mental health after being on the ground covering the Israel-Hamas war 

• He details the psychological impact of his profession in his new book, Black Saturday

For Trey Yingst, the smell of barbecue triggers his PTSD. It reminds him of the burning bodies he witnessed in Gaza after war abruptly broke out in October 2023. The smells are eerily similar, he says, adding that his brain struggles to distinguish them.

“I try as much as possible to separate things in my mind, but that can be difficult,” he tells PEOPLE. “The mind will flash back very quickly.”

On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas militants from Gaza launched a surprise terrorist attack on Israel, killing roughly 1,400 people and taking more than 200 others hostage — a day that later became known as “Black Saturday,” which is also the title of Yingst’s new book.

Yingst — Fox News chief foreign correspondent — spent nearly 200 days on the ground covering the war and calls it “one of the scariest assignments I’ve ever had.”

“We were in southern Israel on the morning of October 7 and witnessed the massacre firsthand. There were people that died in front of me and we saw the aftermath… bodies everywhere,” he recalls. “That was when I really started to realize the impact that being a war correspondent can have on your mind.”

Related: Gaza Journalist Tears Off Protective Gear After Learning of Colleague's Death Live On-Air

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For the past decade, Yingst has traveled the world reporting on the realities of war, violence and human conflict.

The job, which has him away from home for most of the year, has taken a toll on his mental health — he now suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The 31-year-old often has nightmares about what he saw on the front lines and is triggered by certain sights and smells.

“When you come back from a reporting assignment and you're cleaning other people's blood off the bottom of your boots… you don't learn this in journalism school,” he says. “Small things like seeing a coffee stain on the ground. It looks like blood that was on the ground in these houses that we went into. It's quite a sad thing."

Along with his "gruesome" flashbacks and nightmares, Yingst also struggles with “reintegration” — disconnecting from work and balancing his personal and professional lives. Sharing what he calls a vulnerable moment, he says he’s actually “dreading” going to a friend’s wedding because the small talk that comes with seeing others often leaves him feeling lonely.

“My focus for the past year has been what's going on inside Gaza? What is the military saying about a strike that was conducted? How many civilians were killed? How many militants were killed? And then when you go to a wedding, you have to talk about the weather and what people did over the last week, and that can feel really isolating,” he explains.

As he navigates PTSD, Yingst admits that it was challenging to accept his own mental health issues while simultaneously reporting on people whose lives are more difficult.

“There's so much suffering and I tried to capture everything from a very empathetic lens,” the journalist explains. “I try to really humanize the story, understanding that if I'm having trouble with my mental health just covering the story, how must the people who are living through this hell on earth feel? So I try to keep that in mind.”

Yingst recalls meeting a man evacuating Gaza City and seeing, “the look in his eyes of sadness and deep despair.” He often reminds himself when he gets home from a long assignment, “I don’t have to live it.”

“I can, in a way, leave,” he says. “And that's the one difference and probably the reason why I still do this job. I find value in being a voice for the voiceless. It's why I do what I do.”

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That’s one of the reasons Yingst wrote his book Black Saturday, which will be released October 1.

“I think Black Saturday is truly the gold standard of covering the October 7th massacre because it is a story about people,” he shares. “It’s about the human experience in Southern Israel and in Gaza. The goal is to help people better understand what happened on that morning and in the weeks after, not just through my storytelling, but through the stories of other people that I interview.”

While most of the book tells those emotional stories, Yingst says 20% of the book is about his own experience, detailing the psychological impact of reporting on the war and overcoming his mental health challenges. He says it was helpful to get things “out of the mind” and onto paper.

“These are parts of the job that we don't talk about as a journalist, but it's the time in between the live shots where we experience these things that you truly take the job home with you,” he explains. “You can't escape. And I think that has been the most challenging part for me, and I've tried to acknowledge that and then deal with it in a healthy way.”

Related: Stars Who've Spoken Out About Their Mental Health Struggles

Although there are hard days, Yingst says he’s proud of how he has learned to deal with the stress.

He’s a proponent of therapy, cold exposure, physical activity to relieve stress, meditation, breathing exercises and keeping a clean diet. He also no longer drinks alcohol, saying that he’s been sober since January 2023.

“This job has long hours in stressful, dangerous environments. So having a healthy outlet has been really helpful,” he says. “I just think that taking care of the body and mind together prepares you to be able to go back into war zones and do the work that we're doing.”

“I want to set an example for others to let them know you don't have to turn to drugs and alcohol when you're struggling in these ways,” Yingst tells PEOPLE. “There are healthier options.”

Black Saturday releases October 1 and is available for pre-order now.

If you or someone you know needs mental health help, text "STRENGTH" to the Crisis Text Line at 741-741 to be connected to a certified crisis counselor.

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