As a rabbi, I’m often tasked with helping others find meaning in suffering and hope in times of despair. Drawing from the wellspring of biblical and rabbinic wisdom, I frequently find support for a wide range of broken hearts, and I typically have a comforting text to point to. Existential loneliness? Turn to Psalms 23:4:“Though…
“I wish I could have told my younger self: something will work,” Mayim Bialik says in a strikingly forthright video for the Child Mind Institute. May is Mental Health Awareness Month — and while an “awareness months” can be a cutesy panacea, in the case of mental health, awareness saves lives. Belief that psychological problems…
Note: This is Part 1 in a two-part series about the effect of Judaism on mental health. Part 1 is an examination of a recent study on the subject and its implications for Jews on a personal level. Part 2 will be about what our diverse communities can learn from this study. I was sitting…
A recent study by the Partnerships for Jewish Schools found that over 80 percent of Jewish schools have reported a rise in mental health issues among students in the past few years. Yet, while it is commonly believed that Jews and therapy go together like lox and bagels (partially thanks to Woody Allen), that is…
In a country where prescription medication is easily given to people with the slightest inclination towards anxiety and depression, frank talk about what it means to have mental ill is still pretty scarce. Which is what makes Sarah Silverman’s essay in Glamour magazine so meaningful. In the piece, the Jewish comedienne and actress chose to…
illustration by Lior Zaltzman Three years ago I decided to take Abilify, an anti-psychotic medication, prescribed to me to boost the waning effectiveness of my anti-depressant. I had been on selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) since the fall of 2001, and Abilify would be the third psychotropic prescription in my pill organizer. Almost immediately, though,…
Last week I was marooned on my couch with a virus and finally watched the first season of “Girls,” Lena Dunham’s HBO drama about twentysomethings finding their way in New York City. Dunham is very serious about her enterprise, and even the show’s light-hearted moments — which are few and far between — are laden…
In today’s world, our lives revolve around technology and social media. Day in and day out, we text, Tweet, and see what other people are doing through a constant flutter of photos and status updates. We long to be connected to everything and everyone, feeling naked without our phones or compulsive checking of Facebook. But…
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