A creative strategy to help families deal with the stress of war

In a region scarred by ongoing conflicts, where the news cycle never tires and sirens echo through cities and villages alike, a creative animation project offers a quiet, practical antidote to fear.

In the Arab region, mental health has long been met with silence, shaped by stigma, shame and structural neglect. Regional conflicts and the 24-hour news cycle of violence and wars add to the stress that affects Arab families, especially children. Nevertheless, mental illness is often dismissed as weakness. For many, seeking help is still seen as disloyalty, not survival.

The ongoing war on Iran has widened the issue, expanding to countries — especially in the Gulf region, which have been quiet and peaceful for decades — the reality of having to deal with real dangers. Sirens and the need to seek shelter from incoming projectiles have caused an immediate uptick in stress and trauma for many families and communities not used to such issues.

Nations like Saudi Arabia and the UAE are making strides in prioritizing mental health care within their respective national visions. While this is being done mainly in response to a post-pandemic spike in youth anxiety and depression, the actual availability of care has yet to catch up.

Sirens and the need to seek shelter from incoming projectiles have caused an immediate uptick in stress and trauma

Daoud Kuttab

In parts of the Gulf, the number of specialists dedicated to children and teens is still low, dipping as far as 0.3 per 100,000 people. The situation is even more critical in the broader Middle East and North Africa region, where one in six adolescents struggle with a mental health disorder. Despite this, and according to UNICEF, specialized support is virtually nonexistent at the primary care level, leaving more than 90 percent of children in conflict-affected zones without any access to evidence-based treatment.

Digitales Media, a Jordanian digital content and animation company, has adopted a real-time strategy to address the latest problem that families across the region face. The creative team coupled a short, engaging film with downloadable exercises and a broader digital toolkit offering evidence-based methods to cope with stress and trauma.

Ever since hostilities escalated and missiles began to fly overhead, the team has worked around the clock to provide relevant, easy-to-follow content for families — helping children and adults alike who worry whenever a siren reminds them that normal life may be under threat.

The five-minute animated episode “What to do when you are stressed,” which is part of the long-running series “Our Family Life,” attempts to translate evidence-based coping techniques into something families can use at home in moments of tension and after the sirens fade.

The training sequence demonstrates a path from awareness to action: a family watches a brief story, practices a few calm-breathing steps and then carries the practice into the evening routine, school or a neighborhood shelter.

“Our Family Life,” the YouTube program featuring the Abu Sanad family, is not merely entertaining but a creative show that helps parents teach their children how to engage with life’s challenges. The episode on dealing with stress aims to help families regulate their nerves when war anxiety spills into daily life. The wisdom comes from the mother, whose on-screen breathing exercises are not gimmicks but a gateway to resilience that can be learned without prior therapy and without leaving the living room.

What makes this approach noteworthy is its synthesis of accessibility and grounding in science. Breathing exercises, psychoeducation and routines that cultivate a sense of safety are common elements in clinical trauma care. Yet in many Arab countries — where access to mental health services can be uneven, stigmatized or disrupted by displacement — these tools risk remaining abstract unless they are rendered tangible and culturally resonant.

The genius of the episode is that it provides real help to families already trapped at home by external dangers. Based on professional guidance, the program in general and this episode in particular offer a slice of evidence-based care without requiring a doctor’s appointment or long-term therapy.

This war-related stress episode sits within a broader ecosystem that includes “Saleem,” an award-winning feature-length animated film about a boy navigating loss and change, and “Amal for Children,” a digital psychosocial tool that blends animation, narrative and therapy modalities to reduce the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety in children facing trauma.

Beyond the mechanics of delivery, what matters is the emphasis on children and families. In war zones and among displaced populations, children absorb fear through observation and exposure, sometimes more keenly than adults recognize. Programs that model simple, non-stigmatizing coping techniques — breathing, grounding and predictable routines — help households reclaim a sense of agency. They also acknowledge a crucial cultural truth: healing often unfolds in the space between professional care and everyday life, inside mosques, schools, homes and community centers, where trust is built and maintained.

The genius of the episode is that it provides real help to families already trapped at home by external dangers

Daoud Kuttab

When content is crafted in local dialects and framed within familiar family dynamics, it becomes less intimidating and more credible. The Jordanian film’s setting in Amman, its emphasis on family participation and its clear, actionable guidance exemplify how healing tools can be culturally anchored and practically useful.

Not surprisingly, the company’s co-directors, Shadi and Cynthia Sharaiha, were honored with the King Abdullah II Award of Excellence for the film “Saleem,” while the show’s team was also visited by Crown Prince Hussein bin Abdullah and Princess Rajwa.

If we are serious about protecting the mental health of future generations in a region shaped by conflict, we must nurture these cross-cutting efforts: media, education, healthcare and civil society working in concert to make compassion and competence more accessible than fear.

To readers, policymakers, educators and practitioners across the Arab world, the message is clear: invest in and scale family-centered, culturally attuned, digitally enabled mental health resources. Support the creators who turn storytelling into practical care, fund evaluation to learn what truly helps and ensure that young people growing up in war-torn environments have at least one resource they can trust, take home and practice with their families.

If the past decade has taught us anything, it is that resilience thrives where communities are equipped with knowledge, practices and a shared sense of safety. This creative initiative is a reminder that healing can begin with a few minutes of calm — a breath taken together, a story shared or a child supported — and that, in the long arc of recovery, small steps taken at home can help build a more hopeful future for the region.

• Daoud Kuttab is an award-winning Palestinian journalist and former Ferris Professor of Journalism at Princeton University. He is the author of “State of Palestine Now: Practical and Logical Arguments for the Best Way to Bring Peace to the Middle East.” X: @daoudkuttab