Assi Azar Opens Up About Anxiety in New Music Project

Television personality and creator Assi Azar launched his new music project on Thursday, a project devoted entirely to coping with anxiety. In an interview on the program "Tarbutnikim" on Kan News on Reshet Bet, Azar described his own struggle with anxiety, its connection to coming out, and the link to the war period.

The new project, titled "Kol Ma SheOzer" ("Everything That Helps"), includes four songs written together with creator Avi Ochion, with each song addressing a different aspect of anxiety. Earlier this week, the song "Ma SheKashe Lomar" ("What Is Hard to Say"), performed by Itay Levy, was released. Azar said the idea was born after he heard another song by Levy: "I was walking down the street, I heard his song 'Ein Li Makom Acher' and I said, 'Wow, this is really a song about anxiety.' I called Avi Ochion, asked him if that was true and he confirmed it. I told him we had to meet and write a song about anxiety."

Listen to the full interview on Kan News on Reshet Bet

"The anxieties started at a very young age, and I understood them ten years ago when I met my husband," he shared. "At 33 I had a major panic attack that really shook me and I didn’t understand what was happening to me."

On the decision to speak publicly about the issue, he said: "Around the age of 37 I started to get myself together and look for tools, and I immediately knew I wanted to take it out into the open. I remembered the effect of coming out and how much power it gave me. I felt I had to put it out there to remove some barrier of shame, because in the first attacks I didn’t understand what they were and thought I was alone in this."

During the interview, Azar explained that anxiety can appear through a wide range of physical symptoms: "A panic attack has many faces, it is a complex event with all kinds of disguises. It can come as stomach pains, a rapid heartbeat, many people think they are having a heart attack, suddenly a four-day attack of dizziness where you don’t understand what is happening to you, or a rash on the body. Something is happening in the mind that affects the body, the mind, or both."

The new project also includes songs performed by Ran Danker, Nasreen Qadri and Roni Dalumi. Dalumi’s song, "Ahuvi" ("My Beloved"), deals with someone living alongside a person who suffers from anxiety. "During the war we suddenly understood that it is really a song about post-trauma," Azar said. "About a woman whose partner returned from reserve duty and she is looking at him from the side. We are in a very complicated time for everyone, whether they were on the battlefield or at home. It is very important to give a place to what we feel in music as well. There are a million love songs out there, now there will also be a few songs about the soul."

When asked when a person should seek professional treatment, Azar replied: "Anyone who feels that something is not good for them, that something about them is not sitting right, that is an internal feeling, should go and say, 'I want to take care of myself for a moment.' A psychologist is the minimum, and there are many kinds of treatments today."

At the end of the interview, Azar emphasized the importance of removing the stigma: "First of all, to peel away the stigma from the idea that feeling mentally unwell is something to be ashamed of, because it isn’t. In a complicated reality, it is only natural that we feel something is happening inside us mentally during this period."

Also on the subject with a new album: Noam Kleinstien lives out her wildest dreams with a show and new single, and Shlomit Aharon marks 60 years of activity.