Living in the world of trauma and mental illness, I have a special place in my heart for Tisha B’Av and the three weeks. I feel that this time of year is a time that Hashem feels my deep pain, the pain that I hold in my heart a whole year. And I try to Read More …
The following Chabura was selected as one of the winners of this year’s Refuat Hanefesh Creative Expression Contest. Age group: College and Up. Introduction from the Chabura Leader: Mental health has always been a big part of who I am (for better and for worse). As a result, I wanted to insert that part of me Read More …
“Remember when?” and “remember the time that?” These phrases that often come up when I am hanging out with my buddies. We reminisce about times that we had together; we tell jokes about experiences we shared. Nostalgia is so important to society that the movie industry has made it into a multi-billion dollar venture Read More …
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder is an anxiety disorder that is difficult to cope with on a daily basis. The need to perform an action repeatedly until it feels right or being unable to stop obsessing over irrational fears can interfere with your life, leading to extra stress in both your life and the lives of those closest Read More …
Editor’s Note: For victims of sexual assault, the recovery includes mentally healing in addition to physically healing. The following is a post from a young woman describing feeling like the Godliness was leaving her body in the midst of being sexually assaulted. As part of the healing process, she thinks through how she could still Read More …
May is Mental Health Month. It is also a time of counting the omer, the 49 day, 7 week period of self-improvement, between Pesach and Shavuos. Both Mental Health Month and the omer period highlight the importance of treating each other properly and caution that our failure to do so may be fatal. Read More …
The following is a piece from the Refuat Hanefesh column “Struggling Together: Mental Health in The Torah”. In this column, Tzivia Appleman draws on her time studying in Israel, as well as her passion for enhancing society’s mental health views, to propose ways we can understand the emotional state and struggles of the characters and leaders of Read More …
The following is a piece from the Refuat Hanefesh column “Struggling Together: Mental Health in The Torah”. In this column, Tzivia Appleman draws on her time studying in Israel, as well as her passion for enhancing society’s mental health views, to propose ways we can understand the emotional state and struggles of the characters and leaders of Read More …
I’d like to share something close to my heart. I’ve struggled with mental health all my life. I’ve had long stretches of stability between episodes, and many times I thought to myself, “Baruch Hashem, I’m better now!” Invariably, when another episode hit a few months or years later, I was devastated. I’m coming to Read More …