It’s World Mental Health Day! (October 10th.) So I thought it might be useful to compile mental health resources for the Jewish community into one post. If you know of any that aren’t listed, please feel free to add them.
RELIEF – connects/refers Jewish people to therapists and other
mental health resources (focuses mainly on the frum community)
Elijah’s Journey - suicide prevention for the Jewish community (Facebook page)
The Aleph Institute – provides spiritual support for Jews in
institutional environments such as prison, health facilities, and
rehab
No Shame On U – aims to de-stigmatize mental illness by providing
comprehensive education
OHEL - comprehensive services for those facing mental health issues, with professionals fluent in English, Yiddish, and Hebrew
Yad Rachel - for mothers facing postpartum depression, also helps educate family and health providers
Like, if you’re gonna be an adult who’s really into children’s media the least you can do is actually internalize all those themes of being a good and kind person
trans rights are human rights and shouldnt be a political opinion
I don’t know what’s more surprising; isabelle’s in smash or the fact we got a new character smash ulitmate trailer that doesn’t end with one of the previous fighters dying in some way.
i’m mentally ill too but fucking listen to me here. you need to take responsibility for your actions regardless of whether or not they’re a product of your mental illness. you don’t get to manipulate, gaslight, take advantage of, or straight up abuse people because you’re mentally ill! you don’t! what the fuck! why are some of you still thinking it’s okay to say things like “manipulation is okay because i have _____ and need attention from my significant other” oh my god. Don’t fucking do that
“Aren’t schizophrenic people dangerous-” No. Violence towards other people isn’t a symptom of schizophrenia, nor is it common in schizophrenic people. That’s not to say that no one with schizophrenia has ever been violent because of their psychosis, but it isn’t a symptom of or in the diagnostic criteria for the illness, and schizophrenic people in general are no more likely to be violent than anyone else.
“Isn’t that when you have multiple personalities-” No. Schizophrenia isn’t about having multiple personalities - that’s called Dissociative Identity Disorder and is a completely different mental illness. Schizophrenic people might hear one or more voices in their heads and may feel like their actions or thoughts are being controlled by other people/outside forces, but this isn’t the same as having several personalities as it’s always the schizophrenic persons own personality which reacts to these distressing experiences.
“Isn’t schizophrenia when you’re psychotic like when you hear voices and stuff-” Yes, but schizophrenia isn’t “just” about experiencing psychosis (hallucinations, disorganized thinking/speech/behavior and delusions), it also consists of what’s called negative symptoms (lack of energy, lack of motivation, social isolation, lacking or inappropriate emotional responses, lack of ability to feel pleasure) and cognitive symptoms (impaired memory, impaired concentration, learning difficulties, executive dysfunction and impaired working memory). Schizophrenia is a complex mental illness and psychosis is only 1/3 of what schizophrenic people struggle with.
“You can’t recover from schizophrenia, right-” Not true. 25% of the people diagnosed with schizophrenia are symptom free within 5-10 years of being diagnosed with the illness and up to 80% improve with ongoing treatment and support. Schizophrenia isn’t necessarily a life sentence, and while you can’t EXPECT to recover from schizophrenia and while there’s no known cure, recovery is possible for many people with the right treatment.
“Shouldn’t schizophrenic people be locked up-” No. Schizophrenic people are people just like everyone else, and we have the right to the same human rights and the same freedom as other people. We might need to be hospitalized for our own safety sometimes, but we have as much of a right to be a part of and interact with society as everyone else.
“Real schizophrenic people don’t know they’re sick, right-” Some don’t, but at least 45% of schizophrenics are aware that they’re suffering from schizophrenia, so a person being aware that they’re schizophrenic and having insight into their illness/knowing that what they’re experiencing isn’t real or normal isn’t a sign that they aren’t really sick.
“What if schizophrenic people just have special powers-” I’m not going to deny you your right to your spiritual beliefs, but I’m going to insist that you don’t force them onto me or any other schizophrenic person. Just like I’m not gonna show up at a Christians door saying that God isn’t real just because I’m an atheist, you don’t get to tell a schizophrenic person that they can see into other dimensions or talk to spirits. You risk triggering or worsening our illness by sharing your spiritual or religious speculations, so don’t bring them up. Ever.
“Aren’t schizophrenic people dangerous if they don’t take their meds-” No. Anti psychotic meds are heavy medication that impacts your life in many ways, and taking them should always be a free choice. Some people would rather live with their psychosis than take anti psychotic medication, and this doesn’t automatically make them a danger to anyone.
I would really appreciate if non schizophrenic people would consider boosting this post as schizophrenia is a very misunderstood and stigmatized mental illness and I want this post to show up on as many dashes as possible.
I’ve learned a lot of things from this site, but recently the most important one, through repeated negative experiences with people who haven’t learned this, is that your actions aren’t excused no matter how much you truss them up in progressive/activism language.
You’ve read dozens of books on feminist theory and you can recite quotes from history’s most influential women’s liberators on demand? Great, but if your activism justifies demonizing trans women you’re just as trashy as any right wing conservative.
You have a good cause to fight for? Wonderful, but if the way you go about that is by shaming and manipulating people online with social shaming and guilt-baiting, then you’re just another playground bully.
You want to criticize media tropes? Wonderful. But if you do that solely by starting witchhunts and harassing an exclusive group of young independent queer artists whose follower counts you’re jealous of (and who have no actual influence over wider corporate trends), then you are re-enforcing toxic social power dynamics, stepping on queer creators for being imperfect humans and using social justice to justify your petty grudge.
I don’t care if you can wrap up and package your actions in a nice progressive forward thinking bow with all the right rhetoric if your actual actions and targets are reactionary, selfish or discriminatory. Just because you have learned some rhetoric doesn’t make you any better than bigots or conservatives unless you actually care for the spirit of that rhetoric and not just how you can lever it towards your own ends or to justify your pre-existing biases.
Just a random autistic cis female asexual questioning-romantic nerd who posts things about her fandoms she's in, with the occasional social justice post every now and then.
