TWLOHA

Admittedly, I had never heard of this organization until last year when my friend Lucy inspired us all to write love on our arms for one day, to promote the To Write Love on Her Arms charity. She even had this super cute v-neck tee that had the logo on it and I was super jealous. I looked up the TWLOHA later and learned so much more than how to buy the shirts. Their mission statement is, "To Write Love on Her Arms is a non-profit movement dedicated to presenting hope and finding help for people struggling with depression, addiction, self-injury and suicide. TWLOHA exists to encourage, inform, inspire and also to invest directly into treatment and recovery." Yet, as I kept reading, that's only the surface. For example, did you know that 121 million people worldwide suffer from depression, 18 million of which in the United States alone? Or that among teenagers about 20 percent will suffer from depression at some point by the time they reach adulthood? How about that untreated depression is the #1 cause of suicide, and suicide is the 3rd leading cause of death among teenagers? I sure didn't. (Click http://www.twloha.com/page.php?id=10 for some more facts) This is terrible, to say the least. However, I also learned that some of the simplest things we can do also save lives, free of cost. For one thing, the way that we treat and respect not only ourselves but others is the first step to being the best we can be. Not putting others down, but instead finding at least one thing to compliment someone about in a day can make all the difference. It's amazing what support can do, and more directly, what you have the ability to do. This is an incredible movement that needs to be spread and I highly recommend everyone check it out! If nothing else, get one of the awesome tshirts, or jackets or something! Yes, girls AND boys.
See for yourself!
http://www.twloha.com/index.php
More info about depression in general:
http://www.depression.com/

Special thanks to the inspiration/prophets to me of TWLOHA:
- Lucy Weston
- Sara Zepezauer