Sunday, January 24, 2010

TWLOHA...

To Write Love on Her Arms
MISSION STATEMENT:
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.



I have a member of my family that struggles with severe clinical depression and self mutilation. She is a beautiful young woman who has so much pain and sadness inside of her. In order to release this sadness, she cuts herself. Her arms are full of old and new scars. MM is absolutely beautiful inside and out. She's smart, funny, creative and so full of kindness.

Most of her depression comes from her longing for her father. MM's father walked out of her life when she was five years old. Just walked away, no reason with no explanation. She used to cry every year on her birthday growing up because she hoped and prayed her Dad would remember and call or send a card. It never happened.

Last year he contacted her mother via email. He wanted to talk to MM because his second wife and he were having a baby soon. He wanted to share the news with his 'daughter'. Her mother agreed, and gave him MM's email.

MM's father wrote to her, she was so excited until she read the email. It was all about how excited he was to have this new member of the family. How excited he was to be able to give her a baby brother. MM was crushed. He never asked about her, how her life was going. Never apologized for leaving and never looking back all those years ago.

MM is a well written young woman. She had been waiting for this opportunity for many years. She wrote the most intelligent and pointed response I had ever seen. All the hurt, anger and sadness flowed out perfectly. MM had finally gotten all of this off her chest. It felt good. She felt good. A weight had been lifted, for the moment.

His response was typical. He blamed MM's mother for poisoning her against him. He wrote back nasty note and it broke her heart yet again. Still no apology or explanation. He was rude and insulting. MM finally got to see who he really was, she finally was able to let go.

Now that MM is older, she is able to better deal with her feelings of depression over her lack of relationship with her father. She is in therapy with extremely competent mental health professionals. She is still taking things one day at a time. I hope to see her arms clear one day, but until then I will support her and the wonderful organization To Write Love on Her Arms. I will also write love on my arm whenever I feel she needs me.

http://www.twloha.com/vision/

2 comments:

  1. Thank you for sharing this info with us. It sounds like your family member is on the road to recovery and that this organization was a wonderful part of it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. You're welcome. We take everyday one step at a time :-).

    ReplyDelete