Since October 7, Israel has seen extraordinary compassion in motion — volunteers packing food for evacuees, therapists offering free counseling, teachers comforting children through sirens, medics running toward danger.
But months later, as the pace of crisis becomes routine, something quieter has crept in: exhaustion. The kind that isn't solved by sleep. The kind that comes from caring too deeply for too long.
Mental Health First Aid Israel calls this phenomenon compassion fatigue — the emotional and physical depletion that occurs when helpers pour from an empty cup. It's not failure. It's physics.
MHFA trainers often remind participants: "Healing isn't about chasing happiness. It's about making room for it."
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