Sruli Richler is the CEO of the Surplus Company. Speaking at a MicDrop event in Crown Heights on Wednesday, Sruli opened up to the audience about his struggle with obsessive compulsive disorder.
Everyday is a battle for Sruli but he gave this speech to help others. “You are not alone.” Sruli takes us on his journey where he was threatened to be put in a mental health facility at the age of eight. Sruli breaks barriers and wants to put an end to the stigma. If you suffer with OCD, help is there.
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Thanks for sharing
Thank you for sharing yourself with others. May Hashem bless you and your family with a happy and healthy sweet new year, and from strength to strength!
So much respect for you. You are a warrior! An obviously very smart, deep and sensitive person who is making a difference in the world!
As someone who suffers from anxiety and depression, this was a breath of fresh air. You didn’t make is seem like nothing, but you showed that, yes, mental health is real and is a struggle, but it’s a challenge that one can live with and even become a better person because of. Thank you!
Gd Bless you Sruli
You rock
Dr. Jonathan Schwartz from NJ
Great frum therapist
Please share the name of the specialist.
I suffered from OCD it was a living hell it was very specific in terms of religious actions
I finally found a therapist who is an OCD specialist which is imperative and yes u can get better. It never goes fully away but it becomes very manageable
There is hope seek it
The Rebbe says that instead of saying nechai tzahal we should say mezuyanei tzahal or something. The point being that if someone has a handicap,it means hashem gave him extra ordinary strength to overcome it. I used to think that maybe it doesn’t apply to Mental health but now I see it does.
P. S. Maybe your speech is the keli for people with mental health issues to help them find Shidduchim when people see that you can obviously have a very successful Marriage.
To anyone going through Religious subtype of OCD I would like to make a clear point that scrupulously obssesions relating to Hashem, Chasidishkiet, Mikveh, Shabbos, Nidah, Netilas Yodaim or anything else on the spectrum means nothing about the person or is characteristics besides for that fact that it may place you in what’s known as an Existential Crisis manipulating you to believe in it’s misconception that it means something about your relationship or morality Bein Adam Lamokom Or Bein Adam Lechaveiro.
If you want more info on this topic I Highly recommend searching for Existential OCD/Religious OCD/Somatic OCD
how uniquie and talented you are hatzlocho in your future your the riight guy to pray for moshiach with such a willpower
Wow thank you for sharing and making me more aware. I have never thought understood mental illness as I do now. I think you and your wife made a difference worldwide. Someone as put together and normal as you saying you suffer from it.
May you be bentched!!! You said that you know now that showing weakness is strong… oh yes!!
While it may be beneficial to have a tendency of getting things done in a set manner, perfecting things or other perfectionism tendencies enhancing life and work performance it would also be nice to get it those things done without an additional unnecessary emotional component of excessive anxiety , mind reading and magical thinking.
OCD isn’t a disease that bothers . It’s a disease that tortures – jj Keller.
I have a similar story, since I was around 10 I had the fears you describe and thought G-d was punishing me, etc. Today I am older and am in a much better place. But the journey of struggling with this disorder let me grow significantly; personally, religiously, etc. I would not be who I am if it weren’t for having gone through this. So THANK YOU for sharing with the world what I am yet too afraid to share.
We must talk.
I have lots to share.
How can I reach you?
Very brave, I myself am challenged with OCD, I had a miserable experience in yeshiva, the Hanhala never picked up on my behavior and I was too embarrassed to share it with them.
I now BH manage my OCD very well, I envy you for having the courage to share your person am story, it is so vulnerable and only someone who experiences it can truly relate.
It is important that family members of someone that has OCD educate themselves so that they can support him in his Journey.
So powerful #respect
Truly informative and inspiring. One of the best and moving presentations on a mental health condition I have ever seen. I hope TED.COM picks this up or some other platform since it should be seen by over a million people. Thank you not only for your bravery but such a clear presentation of the daily battle someone with OCD experiences. Would be important to tell which therapy he is using and its effectiveness. Wishing Sruli and his family a Kasiva V Chasima zTova L Shana Tova v Masuka!
He was hands down the best night activity director to hit the planet
Thank you so much,
do you have contact info? An wud you be willing to talk to someone I know suffering from these issues??
That was a very deep, open, honest, and important talk for everyone to hear. I don’t suffer from OCD, or know someone (that I know of) that has it, but your talk was so informative and insightful and important to hear.
Thank you for sharing!
I salute you for bravely sharing your powerful story. I am sharing with many who will benefit.
May Hashem light your path with much revealed good now and always.
I like the open attitude, not hiding and being generous enough to share with others to help other people. thankyou
So proud to be your cousin
Thank you sooo much for opening up publicly about this. There has been discussion about many other mental health issues – addiction, eating disorders etc, but I noticed that OCD was missing from open discussions, and so many people silently suffering. Kol hakavod Sruli for opening up and showing your strength by discussing your weakness. May Hashem bentsch you and your family with a happy, healthy year and please know that you have done an amazing mitzvah of ahavas Yisroel to help people know and understand that help is available for OCD.
what a chessed you have done for many people by sharing this.
You are such a brave person with a lot of emotional honesty. May Hashem continue to give you Menuchas Hanefesh. Your an amazing person!
wow so well spoken and so confident. hashem should bless you and your family to be able to keep spreading the message that there is no stigma to mental health and that help is avail. thx for sharing ur story. wow im floored !!
you don’t even know how much hope, courage and help you are giving to people with ocd and other mental health issues. You are doing our community and world at large an unbelievable service. What a perfect time to share this before Rosh hashana. What you did was pure ahavas Yisroel. In return we all feel ahavas sruli to you! Thank you! Thank you!
there is only a Stigma if you want there to be.
Do what’s good for you and let the world think what they want to think.
sometimes its good to have a little !!!!
Tzadik you!
For a person who can speak like that, shows that he is a real mentch and chosid with the full deep meaning of it.
Kol hakovod Sruli you deserve our full respect
OCD is a very Treatable Condition.
There are great Treatment options out there with
Medication & Exposure and response Prevention.
Please don’t hesitate to get help.
i love this. i dont even have the words to explain my emotions about this. we need more of this. this is how we break the stigma. i am in a program now, all my friends write about their mental health challenges in their college essays but we as frum chabad jews cant because of shidduchim. and the stigma. i would love to do this one day, to talk about my own challenges. this is so brave and i admire this so much.
Thank you for sharing with all of us. Extremely empowering
Thank you for your honesty and bravery. I applaud you for sharing.
What a gift you have given to countless people.
Kol Hakavod for sharing, thank you!
Thank you so much for having the courage to share!
Thank you so much. As a mother of a child with mental health issues including ocd. I was crying as i watched. We did notice his issues but the past few years have been very difficult trying to find the right help. This has given me soo much hope! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Would love to hear the name of the therapist. Thank you again! May Hashem bench you with all brochos and menuchas hanefesh! Ksiva Vachasima Tovah
Thank you for sharing this. Thank you for that insight. And thank you for telling the world that one can be OK even when suffering.
Thanks for the brilliant talk. As someone with a husband with OCD this was very helpful
Sruli you were my hero in camp!!!
I have suffered from this for many years, maybe in a lower level but it was still unbearable, I have shared with a sibling and things became better, now on therapy, I also wish this would have been shared by then, so thanks Sruli for doing that now, this will cause a amazing impact and change in the future if many like us!!!
Thank you so much for sharing your story and making it ok and the right1 thing to do for our community.
God bless you.
Very powerful
Wow – I am really inspired after watching that clip. It is incredible that he spoke about such a difficult topic with such eloquence. He is helping so many by sharing his story…
Thank you.
Hashem should bless you with much success.
We need more people like Sruli to open up
sruly is the kind of person that is always giving of himself. he is a true inspiration to anyone he comes in contact with. its the truth
Hashem should heal everyone. and we should learn to embrace our differences and truly become a most beautiful mosaic