Today, I wrote LOVE on Her Arms...

Today is "To Write Love on her arms Day" - To draw attention to depression, suicide, self-injury and addiction

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

The following was written with permission from my daughter:

Today I wrote LOVE on her arms. I used the faded lines of the marks left behind from when she used to cut herself. Thankfully, they have almost faded completely away, but I used the few faint lines I could find to begin to write the word: L…O…V…E.. then I embellished it as pretty as I could before sending her to school. The girl is my daughter Gigi, who, at the tender age of 11 began to cut herself.

She’s 15, now, and no longer does it. Years of love, counseling, self-help and lots of prayer! have helped her to find alternative ways to deal with her emotions, but unless you’ve been there yourself, you have no idea how scary it can be to see your little girl’s arm bleeding from cut marks. To be honest, I thought that was something little white girls did for attention(no offense meant), I never thought the problem would be more than just knocking at my front door; it would be setting up shop in my home.

She hid it for a long time. I saw changes in her behavior I really didn’t understand: moodiness, defiant behavior, lashing out - then silence, I knew some of the signs were signs of depression, but what I didn’t know that after the lashing out and then subsequent silence, she was hiding in the room – cutting herself – then hiding the evidence with long sleeved shirts. I, honestly can’t recall when I first saw the shocking sight, I just remember feeling numb (and dumb) when I did. How could I have missed the signs?! What if I didn’t find out until it was too late? (many cutters try suicide) For a long time, I lived in fear of have an argument with her because I was afraid of what she might do to herself…

But I did find out in time and thankfully she has responded well to therapy. We still deal with the depression on occasion, but we’re working on that together. I'm also glad she taking such an active role in her own recovery.

So today, I wrote LOVE on her arms and on her sister’s arms and on mine, too. Not just for her, but for me & for my mother, for my nephew that committed suicide, for the family members and friends I’ve personally known that have conquered depression and addiction and for those still struggling to recover…

And for those that are wishing someone would help them…

so..Please,for today, write LOVE on your arms.

Be blessed.