In the days and weeks after October 7, tens of thousands of Israelis stepped forward to help. Some cooked meals for displaced families; others coordinated aid deliveries, collected donations, or sat beside grieving parents through long nights.
They became the heartbeat of a nation in shock.
Months later, many of these same helpers are struggling quietly — not from trauma they directly endured, but from the emotional weight of what they carried for others.
Mental Health First Aid Israel calls this the hidden exhaustion of the helpers: compassion fatigue and secondary trauma among those who answered the call to serve.
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