In the months following October 7, Israel's artists and art therapists became quiet heroes. They painted murals in shelters, guided children's hands trembling with fear, and helped communities turn ashes into color. Their work filled spaces where words could not go.
But behind the canvases, another story has unfolded — one that few speak about.
Some of these same artists and therapists have since fallen into deep depression. A few have taken their own lives. Many others are battling exhaustion and despair in silence.
Mental Health First Aid Israel calls this the artist's descent — the invisible slide from creation to collapse that can overtake those who carry others' trauma while trying to transform it into light.
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