About Jared Bendifallah

I have struggled with anxiety since I was a teenager, but was always able to keep myself stable throughout high school and college by focusing on school and leaning on the structure that being a student provided me. After graduating from college in 2012 I moved back to my childhood home, and the three years from 2013-2015 were what I call the “dark years” of my life. I developed an eating disorder and became completely hopeless and suicidal. 

Everything culminated in 2015 when I spent 50 days at a psychiatric hospital and 4.5 months at a residential recovery program, where I finally got on the right medication, overcame my eating disorder, and got my life back after three long years.

I have been in recovery for the last eight years. I got a Masters degree from the University of Southern California in Urban Planning in 2019 (including a Dean’s Merit Scholarship for half of my tuition) and have been working as a mental health advocate in various roles for the National Alliance on Mental Illness Westside Los Angeles (NAMI WLA) since October of 2020. 

I work as a peer support group facilitator, peer support specialist, and speaker for NAMI WLA. As a facilitator, I lead three support groups a week for adults living with mental health conditions and have led over 400 groups since October of 2020. Being a facilitator has given me a deep understanding of the daily struggles that people face battling with mental health conditions. It is a real, vulnerable, and honest healing space. 

As a peer support specialist, I work one on one with adults living with mental health conditions, practicing active listening, developing rapport, and helping people problem solve and set goals for themselves.

As a speaker, I have been featured on a NAMI “Peer Panel” and have shared my story of recovery at events for family members of those with mental health conditions. I’ve been able to witness firsthand the need for hope when it comes to people living with mental health conditions and their family members. I have also spoken to middle schoolers, high schoolers, college students, and graduate students about mental health, stigma, and suicide prevention as part of NAMI’s “Ending the Silence” program.

I have also presented my “Five Building Blocks of Recovery” (formerly "Five Pillars of Recovery") twice for NAMI WLA, once as part of “Mental Health Awareness Month” in May of 2023 and once as part of NAMI’s “Youth Summit” in December of 2023. I also gave the same presentation for NAMI Urban Los Angeles for their “Speakers Night” in January of 2024 and for SHARE! (The Self-Help and Recovery Exchange) for their “Peer Workforce Conference” in late January of 2024. 

A friend of mine in the mental health field once joked that I have a “doctorate in lived experience” when it comes to living with a mental health condition.The Five Building Blocks of Recovery were bourne out of my personal story and my professional experience in the mental health field.