Celebrate TWLOHA Day: November 13
TWLOHA (To Write Love on Her Arms) is a nonprofit worthy of your support. Read all about the inspiring stuff they're doing and learn how to get involved.
By Jolene Siana
Published: November 12th, 2010 | 3:20pm
Prevention starts with discussion. This is the philosophy behind To Write Love on Her Arms, a non-profit aiming to present hope for those struggling with addiction, depression, and self-injury, founded in February 2006 by Jamie Tworkowski. The idea grew organically from a small group of friends who made a choice to help change one life that in turn would change many others. The choice was simple—they decided to be there for a friend during an extreme crisis. That friend was 19-year old Renee Yohe, who was suffering from addiction, depression and self-injury. For five days Tworkowski and friends watched over Yohe while she detoxed until she was finally admitted into rehab. This experience, having had a profound effect on Tworkowski, inspired him to write her story. He named it “To Write Love On Her Arms” and created a MySpace page to sell the T-shirts that were made to help pay for Yohe’s treatment. From there, the word spread through the Internet and a movement was born.
Approximately every 2 hours and 11 minutes, a person under the age of 25 commits suicide. Knowing that this permanent solution to a temporary problem is preventable is the impetus the keeps TWLOHA going. We all have moments of defeat and weakness. A lot of us suffer from fleeting thoughts of hopelessness. “Fleeting” being the operative word. It is reported that of the thirty survivors who intended to jump to their death from the Golden Gate Bridge, nineteen have come forward to say that as soon as they jumped, they immediately regretted their decision to do so. TWLOHA believes that rescue is possible. Their vision is to present hope and open up dialogue to talk about things that people don’t talk about.
A self-described “broken person,” Tworkowski feels that we need to remove the stigma associated with mental illness. And he’s doing just that by leading the TWLOHA crew who are actively involved in speaking events at colleges across the country. While they do not provide counseling or treatment, they serve as a bridge by connecting people to existing resources such as AA, NA, S.A.F.E (Self Abuse Finally Ends) and the newly created 12-step online community InTheRooms.com, which gives those in recovery a place to connect and a database that provides listings of local anonymous meetings.
Another avenue for bringing awareness has been through the incredible support of musicians. From the very start music has been a vital part of their story. TWLOHA’s MySpace page garnered attention from Switchfoot frontman, Jon Foreman, who was one of the first people to wear a TWLOHA T-shirt. Tworkowski credits Foreman and a handful of other artists for carrying TWLOHA and giving them their start, (The Almost, Anberlin, Bayside, Boys Like Girls, Forever the Sickest Kids, Paramore,The Rocket Summer, The Summer Set, Thrice, Valencia, and Underoath to name a few). Tworkowski feels that music has the power to move and encourage people and to simply remind us we’re alive.
For the past four years TWLOHA has set up a booth at the Warped Tour where their presence has been well received. TWLOHA Benefit Coordinator Chloe Grabanski says the response to the booth has been phenomenal and it allows them to be able to share what they’re about with the Warped Tour crowd. TWLOHA has also recently collaborated with the band Boys Like Girls during National Suicide Prevention Week to raise money for IMAlive , a live online crisis network that will be able to reach those online who may feel intimidated by speaking face to face to someone or afraid to pick up the phone when they are feeling isolated and would like to reach out.
I asked Tworkowski what each of us can do on a daily basis to be there for one another, how we can follow his lead and spread love and understanding in a world that can feel so overwhelming to live in at times and he said this: “I think it's important we learn about the issues our friends and family are struggling with. To really love someone, you have to do your best to understand where they're at. It’s important to learn how to help people, how to talk to them, and resources to point them toward. And then, perhaps in contrast, I think we also have to remember that it's not about having all the answers. Maybe it's just as important that we simply learn to meet people in their questions, to share the weight of those things—to let our friends know that they're not alone in their struggles.”
The TWLOHA movement is in thriving full force. A group of fans has declared November 13 as TWLOHA day. Be a part of the movement. Spread the love.
GET INVOLVED:
Jolene Siana is the author of Go Ask Ogre: Letters from A Deathrock Cutter. She lives in Brooklyn and blogs here. Below, she recommends some contemporary reads that tackle self-injury, depression, and suicide.
- Dear Diary by Lesley Arfin
- Live Through This: On Creativity and Self-Destruction by Sabrina Chapadjiev
- Thin Skin by Emma Forrest
- Girl in Need of a Tourniquet: Memoir of a Borderline Personality by Merri Lisa Johnson
- Skin Game: A Memoir by Caroline Kettlewell
- Ballads of Suburbia by Stephanie Kuehnert
- Attention. Deficit. Disorder. by Brad Listi
- The Girl I Wanted to Be by Sarah Grace McCandless
- Scars
by Cheryl Rainfield
- PROZAC NATION by Elizabeth Wurtzel
Issue #27
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