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Resource Category: Depression

The leading mental health disability globally, depression is a serious medical illness that can negatively affect feelings, thoughts, and actions.
It can lead to a variety of emotional and physical problems and can decrease a person’s ability to function at work and at home.

It’s important to note that while most depression is episodic (a person may go through better periods and worse ones), dysthymia is a form of depression characterized by less severe depressive symptoms over a continuous period lasting multiple years.

Taking Care of Our Kids by Taking Care of Ourselves: Mental Health for New Parents

One of the most difficult things for us as we worked through our struggles was the glorification of the sacrifices that caregivers (especially those who identify as women) are expected to make. For instance, loss of interest in activities we previously enjoyed was a difficult benchmark to wrap our heads around. We'd been told that once we gave birth, we wouldn't have time for anything other than the baby. Therefore, losing interest in our hobbies was something we both figured was to be expected. In a way, if we lost interest in our hobbies, wasn't that an indication that we were adjusting to centering our lives around our children? Wasn't that what was supposed to happen?
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Depression Among Tweens

Written in Partnership with In the City Camps | Even before the pandemic that changed the world (especially for kids, tweens and teens), depression among tweens was on the rise. The suicide rate among people ages 10 to 14 tripled between 2007 and 2017, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). And according to U.S. News and World Report, tweens are experiencing major depression nearly 50 percent more often nowadays, which dramatically increases their risk of suicide. So what can parents do to determine whether their tween is having an emotional crisis?
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Death and Sorting

By Rabbi Sandra Cohen | After the death of her father-in-law, Rabbi Sandra reflects on grief is funny. "Just when you think you have a handle on your feelings and on the physical energy around mourning, it creeps up on you from behind and nails you to the wall."
Group of older adults gathering.
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Love Your Tree – Tu B’Shvat and Body Positivity

The month of February is set aside as Eating Disorders and Body Image Awareness Month. It is a time when we call attention to people who are struggling with all kinds of eating and body image-related challenges and a time to celebrate people of all shapes and forms. Tu B’Shvat and body positivity are surprisingly related within Jewish tradition.
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The Truth about Brown and Me

By Rabbi Sandra Cohen | Forgiving myself is always the hardest part. Inside, I feel I failed. But, if I step back, or I step up on the balcony to see the pattern my life has taken, it is hard to realistically to believe I botched my life. Instead, I want to proclaim the wonders of my college years, the things I learned and the faith I discovered. All of these helped to get me to where I am now, with a life full of blessings.
Image of a woman in black and white.
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You Always Have a Home Here – Parshat Bechukotai

In this sermon, Rabbi Matt Shapiro explores the health benefits of community and the idea of returning home, and how people experiencing mental health concerns need to remember that they can rely on their communities to create a space for them to reside in. And that the members of those communities need to ensure that that is true.
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High Holiday Liturgy Viewed Through the Lens of Depression

Imagine for a moment you live with depression. It is not a family member or loved one who has depression — you are the patient. You are suffering. You are in so much pain and your brain is so ill, you have thoughts of suicide. Next, consider the liturgy of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur: We are commanded to “choose life.” Teshuva, Tefilla and Tzedakah, repentance, prayer and charity, are your ticket to the Book of Life for another year.
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