Last Saturday, Partners for Mental Health held a screening for To Write Love on Her Arms, a film that tells the story of Renee Yohe, a nineteen year old struggling with addiction, depression, self harm who attempts suicide, and how it inspired Jamie Tworkowski to create the organization “To Write Love on Her Arms”. This charity is dedicated to presenting hope and finding help for those struggling with depression, addiction, self-injury, and suicide. They try to encourage, inform, inspire, and invest into treatment and recovery.
The film was incredibly powerful, very impactful, and undoubtedly inspirational. Although the whole movie was very well done, and very well put together, I found a few scenes to be extremely triggering, that you should be aware of, if you ever want to watch it (and you should!)
Following the movie, there was a panel, featuring a couple of mental health experts, and YAA’s own, Julia Caddy, as a youth representative. Go Julia!
The panel really opened my eyes to some of the problems surrounding mental health and mental health care. One of the most surprising things I learned was that three times more adolescents die of suicide than they die of all cancers combined. When you go to a hospital with a cancer diagnosed child, they receive care immediately (which is a great system, I’m not saying anything against that). But when you go to the hospital with a child diagnosed with mental illness, they may have to wait up to six months before they’re able to get help. And sadly, by the time they can get the treatment they need, it’s too late.
Another really good point that was brought up, was the issue of taking days off for mental health. We’re allowed to take days off when we feel physically ill, yet if I called my school and told them that I wouldn’t be able to come in because I was feeling depressed, or I was having an anxiety attack, my request would probably be rejected, maybe even deemed an invalid issue. So why is that? Isn’t it about time we accepted that mental illness isn’t just a myth. It’s a real, serious, and powerful issue that needs to be talked about.
So what can we do? Well, we can start the talking openly about these issues. Even if you’ve never gone through mental illness struggles, we should all find the compassion within ourselves to help. There are so many people in the world that are silenced by mental illness, and by stigma. I think that it’s our job to be a voice for those who don’t have one.
If you are struggling with mental illness, I cannot stress enough, the importance of talking to someone. I know it’s hard to tell someone because not only do you have to admit it to them, you have to admit it to yourself. And that’s pretty terrifying. It takes a lot of courage and a lot of strength, but I promise you, people will listen, and it’s the first step towards getting better.
Just remember : You’re never alone.
