with Matana
Margy’s father committed suicide and her struggle with his mental health symptoms didn’t end with his death. He was a hoarder. Margy, as his only child, was thrust into the role of going through her parents’ house after he passed. She was the one who had to hire help and a dumpster and motivate her mother to go through her belongings every single day until the house was cleaned out.
You might know someone with mental illness. Maybe it’s you; maybe a family member or friend. But it is someone you wish to see get better. You’ve seen them suffer, even while in treatment. Perhaps you have suffered as well. You wish there was another way for them to find help and hope in the darkness. Chazkeinu was created to offer that additional support to Orthodox Jewish women living with mental illness.
(As part of helping break the stigma surrounding mental health, we have decided to share real and vulnerable stories of […]
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Joe Brikman joins us to share with us how he has come to thrive, despite adversity. As a boy, he was sexually abused by a female babysitter and at the age of 12, shortly after he told his parents, his father was diagnosed with cancer. Joe was sent off to a boarding school where, no matter his accomplishments, it seemed he could never live up to their strict expectations. This, combined with the flashbacks and issues he was dealing with, made him feel hopeless, and he attempted suicide on his 14th birthday.
(As part of helping break the stigma surrounding mental health, we have decided to share real and vulnerable stories of […]
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In 2010, Debbie DeMarco Bennett learned that she had borderline personality disorder, (BPD) was in and out of psychiatric hospitalizations, frequently threatening suicide, unable to keep a job and her relationships were very hot and very cold. Having grown up in the foster care system and being placed in group homes she had been working with her psychiatrist and therapist at the health organization Kaiser, where she received her diagnosis of BPD. Her psychiatrist introduced her to Dialectical Behavior Therapy, (DBT), and after she enrolled into treatment, she realized that she was not crazy, but rather, was just someone who felt deeply, intensely, and never really learned how to manage when difficulty surfaced.
In this powerful solo episode, we hear a story of a daughter’s disappointment and how her mother makes space for that pain, with love and without judgement. Matana tells us how her daughter so badly wanted to travel abroad for a family wedding but due to covid travel restrictions, was unable to. Like so many facing mild or severe disappointments, regardless of the level of challenge, being there to help another person in pain can be daunting.
For the 20th anniversary of 9/11, I had the privilege of interviewing one of the few people who survived the attack from a higher floor in the tower. Ari Schonbrun worked on the 101st floor in the accounts receivables department of a stock market firm. Of their 960 employees in that office, only 302 survived. Most of those who lived were not in the office that day.
There has been a lot of talk on social media about the Netflix show My Unorthodox Life these last couple weeks, and it has brought up a lot of different emotions for me. I thought I had healed from my upbringing, but I have found that I am still broken. After listening to others express their feelings for several days, I wanted to share how it has made me feel and what I have learned from this experience.
As the Jewish Holiday of Shavuot approaches, Matana faces her Trauma, as this was the date that she had her first panic attack, which was the drive behind creating this podcast and creating a space dedicated to helping those in need, who also suffer from depression and anxiety.