About To Write Love on Her Arms
Adapted from their website:
To Write Love on Her Arms (TWLOHA) began as an
attempt to tell a story and a way to help a friend in Spring 2006. The
story and the life it represented were both things of contrast—pain
and hope, addiction and sobriety, regret and the possibility of
freedom. The story’s title “To Write Love
on Her Arms” was also a goal, believing that a better life
was possible. We learned quickly that the story we were
telling represented people everywhere. We began to hear
from people in need of help, and others asking what they could do
to help their friends. We heard from people who had lost loved ones
to suicide. Many said that these were questions they
had never asked and parts of their story that they had never shared. Others
were honest in a different way, confessing these were issues they
knew little or nothing about. It seemed we had stumbled
upon a bigger story, and a conversation that needed to be had.
Over the six years, TWLOHA has responded to 170,000 messages from
people in 100 different countries. We’ve had the opportunity
to bring this conversation, and a message of hope and help, to concerts,
universities, festivals and churches. We’ve learned
that these are not American issues, not white issues or “emo”
issues. These are issues of humanity, problems of pain
that affect millions of people around the world.
We’ve learned that two out of three people who struggle with
depression never seek help, and that untreated depression is the
leading cause of suicide. In America alone, it’s
estimated that 19 million people live with depression, and suicide
is the third-leading cause of death among those 15-24 years old.
The good news is that depression is very treatable, that a very
real hope exists in the face of these issues. We’ve
met people who are getting the help they need, sitting across from
a counselor for the first time, stepping into treatment, or reaching
out to a suicide hotline in a desperate moment.
More information can be found at To Write Love on Her Arms http://www.twloha.com/