Suicide

Anonymous Female
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The following poem was selected as one of the winners of this year’s Refuat Hanefesh Creative Expression Contest. Age group: high school. Message from the author: Trapped is a poem discussing the feelings of depression one faces and how one feels trapped within themselves Barely Breathing: suffocationA silent stone in jailThey won’t put me on probationI Read More …

Sarah Last
Sarah Last is a passionate 21-year-old from Plainview, New York. She is currently attending Stern College for Women, majoring in Psychology and minoring in Education. Sarah has been diagnosed with anxiety, Depression, OCD and BPD and wishes to use her experience with mental illness to help others and break the stigma.
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Editor’s Note: This blog post is sponsored by Tanya Kakon in memory of Shlomo Ben Liora. May his neshama have an aliya. If you would like to sponsor a blog post, please click here. Self-harm urges can be very powerful and difficult to navigate. I would know. Particularly troubling is that 1 in 5 females Read More …

Anonymous Female
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Editor’s Note: This piece contains descriptions of the author’s Sexaholism symptoms in general terms, which some readers may find uncomfortable. Refuat Hanefesh believes that addiction is a critically important issue to shed a light on in the Jewish community, particularly this segment of addiction as it is seldomly discussed. We commend the author for sharing Read More …

Anonymous Female
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I just recently turned 22. A birthday is always a good time to stop and reflect on the previous year and make goals for the coming year. And currently being in quarantine, I can’t help but remember where I was a year ago on my 21st birthday. The period around my 21st birthday was the Read More …

anonymous
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PART 1: Today, I had an anniversary. It wasn’t a wedding anniversary or friendaversary. It wasn’t one of the “six months to the day that I almost killed myself” or “one year to the day my therapist called Hatzalah to get me to the hospital” anniversaries either. Today, I was marking three years with no Read More …

anonymous
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The following piece was selected as one of the winners of this year’s Refuat Hanefesh Creative Expression Contest. Age group: High School. It has been lightly edited.    Message from the Author: This poem is about the impact a short message or real interaction can have and what looking behind the mask of another person can Read More …

anonymous
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The following piece was selected as one of the winners of this year’s Refuat Hanefesh Creative Expression Contest. Age group: College and Up. It has been lightly edited.      Stigma is not only found among the family and friends of one suffering from mental illness. It also lies in the head of those suffering. They Read More …

anonymous
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Editor’s Note: This is part two of a two-part post. The first part discussed the tribulations of the author making it through a night with anorexia, OCD and suicidal ideation. The second part, below, discusses the author’s experiences in superficial Jewish culture as a demonstration of how Jewish society fosters self-image challenges and prioritizes the Read More …

anonymous
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We all have heard, in some form or another, the horrors that occur within the walls of the psychiatric unit of the hospital. Whether it be the straitjacket that people wear as they are strapped into a stretcher, carried off to procedures; or the crazy people that scream all day and are only quieted with Read More …