Warren County Newswire

FACING DEPRESSION HEAD ON
By: Cassie Hart

Twelve million people worldwide suffer from depression according to the World Health Organization. This is one of the reasons that depression, addiction, self injury and suicide are the topics that a group calling itself To Write Love on Her Arms (TWLOHA) addresses.

The group visited Monmouth College campus recently. This 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.
Jamie Tworkowsi, founder of TWLOHA, proclaims that, “this was an evening where we got to talk about things that people tend not to talk about. We get to touch depression, addiction, self injury and suicide.” TWLOHA began as a simple attempt to tell the story of a friend in need of treatment, and soon became an internet phenomenon and global movement. ”More than anything we try to point to hope, to help and to the need of community. So, I think that if we could say any one thing to people it is hope that they are not alone.” This is the idea that he is spreading around the world.

Tworkowski talked to MC students and members of the community telling his journey of where he is today, and what we can do as individuals to help. The biggest challenge that he gave to the audience was “the more we talk about these problems, the more people we can reach.”

This organization has helped over 150 thousand individuals in 100 different countries. One member of the audience, Cody Rodgers, MC sophomore declared that this was an important evening for herbecause he learned “if you truly want to help it’s not always about helping them face to face but it is about helping them in other ways.”