Suicide impacts every community on the planet.

We don’t know all you’ve survived this past year. But those things don’t make you too much, they don’t make you a burden. There are people who have been where you are right now. There are people who want to help.

We invite you to join us in disrupting the belief that struggling with mental health makes you a burden.

video screenshot
You Are Not A Burden

Globally, 1 in 100 deaths is a suicide. We need to remind people they are not a burden. Learn More

Understanding the Numbers

  • 700,000 people die by suicide each year.
  • Globally, 1 in 100 deaths is a suicide.
  • In the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, the global prevalence of anxiety and depression increased by 25 percent. Young people are one of the groups most affected.
  • Over the last decade, suicide rates in the US have increased most for people of color in these groups: 43 percent for Black people, 41 percent for Indigenous people, and 27 percent for Latine/Hispanic people.
  • Suicide is the second leading cause of death among 14-18-year-olds in the US.
  • 45 percent of LGBTQ youth seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year. Nearly 1 in 5 transgender and nonbinary youth attempted suicide and LGBTQ youth of color reported higher rates than their white peers.

Understanding Suicide

  • No one takes their life for a single reason. Life stresses, combined with known risk factors, such as childhood trauma, substance use, or even chronic physical pain can contribute to someone taking their life.
  • Suicide is related to brain functions that affect decision-making and behavioral control, making it difficult for people to find positive solutions.
  • 90 percent of people who die by suicide have an underlying—and potentially treatable—mental health condition.
  • Depression, bipolar disorder, and substance use are strongly linked to suicidal thinking and behavior.

Why we need to remind people
they are not a burden.

    The You Are Not A Burden campaign is centered around the idea that we can disrupt a false belief that often drives those who experience suicidal thoughts to action. As Dr. Thomas Joiner’s Interpersonal Psychological Theory of Suicidal Behavior describes, “A person who is suicidal usually experiences a combination of feelings that they don’t belong and that their life or existence burdens others. There is also a conclusion that these feelings represent a permanent situation; that this is how things are going to be, going forward.” The perceived burdensomeness one feels is also identified as the driver of a lethal outcome when the “desire for death meets the capability to die.”
    Capability means things like fearlessness of death, fearlessness of pain, pain tolerance, and knowledge and familiarity with things that may be used in a lethal suicide attempt. When those three processes come together in the same individual, that’s when the model predicts a lethal outcome.
    This helps to explain why a large number of people in any given year will think about suicide (estimated at 12 million in the US) or even make a plan (estimated at 1.2 million in the US), but a smaller group (45,979 in the US in 2020) will actually die by suicide.
    With suicide rates rising over the past 20 years, we’ll continue to offer action steps you can take to prevent suicide, help limit lethal means, reach those in your community, and help share this important message.

How we help prevent suicide

Find Help + Connect To Care

Find Help + Connect To Care

Most people who die by suicide struggled with a diagnosable mental health condition. Connecting people to the mental health resources they need and deserve through our FIND HELP Tool can save lives. And because we know receiving more extensive care can take time, we’ve also created a Self-Care page that offers free activities and steps that can be taken to prioritize mental health immediately.

Find Help Self-care Resources

Support This Work

Support This Work

Mental health care is not accessible or affordable for most people.. TWLOHA is helping to tear down this financial barrier by providing scholarships and assistance to those looking for mental health resources. A gift of $75 dollars gives someone the opportunity to sit with a therapist today.

Give Hope

Carry The Message

Carry The Message

By wearing the words that so many need to hear, you can be a visible reminder of hope for those struggling and the work we all can do to help prevent suicide.

Shop the collection

Suicide Prevention Action Steps

Get Involved in Central Florida

Move Into Light is an initiative by Brevard Prevention Coalition focused on reducing stigmas surrounding mental health and addiction. Move Into Light is dedicated to moving people toward the light of awareness, critical resources, and, most of all, access to hope.

Get Involved

Why therapy scholarships matter:

“I am just starting out in the young adult world. Trying to prioritize my mental health while trying to figure out what this ‘life thing’ is has presented to be exceptionally difficult. TWLOHA helped me be able to take a breath and know I am able to get the help I need on the hard days.

“I have been in a spiraling depression for over two years. I have had to take time off, as well as a medical leave, due to my condition. I’ve been on the desperate edge of suicide for months now, desperate for escape and relief. Thank you to the T&R Scholarship, I have not had the added financial burden of worrying about covering my copays for my weekly therapy sessions. These sessions have been my fuel to keep living and keep fighting for hope. If it was not for my therapist and the help of TWLOHA, I don’t know where I would be.

“The TWLOHA Treatment & Recovery Scholarship has changed the trajectory of my life forever. I didn’t know that Hope was possible, but through the scholarship I have been able to go to counseling and have really connected with my counselor. And for the first time in my life I am seeing progress and hope instead of trauma and numbness. I am forever thankful for this organization and one of these days I want to be able to give back to help others that are in my situation. Nothing has felt more hopeless than knowing you desperately need help, really want it, but can’t afford it. Thank you for being such a significant part of my healing journey!

“I cannot express my gratitude about this scholarship. It has been a true god-send to me. I have been able to truly work out lots of issues and get a real start on my progress to mental stability. Your organization has truly been awesome. I am grateful for all that you do. In this state, there is little support for mental health. Few resources. This is a shining light in the darkness. Thank you for your support from the bottom of my heart.

“I hadn't been able to start therapy due to a lack of being able to afford it. Your scholarship helped me get back on track to taking care of my mental health needs and it's caused me to have healthier relationships, including with myself. Due to your scholarship, after 15 years of neglect I finally feel like a weight has been lifted off of my shoulders.

“I am so grateful that your organization has helped me so much. I am so humbled. I wish I could help out after I have got back on my own feet. You have truly been a great blessing in my life. Thank you.

“I want you to know that your assistance literally saved my life. Through therapy I have addressed childhood trauma and codependency issues. I know my worth and that I was created to do great things. This is all because of the support I received from TWLOHA. I know there is no destination with therapy, it’s truly a journey, but today I am a different woman than I was a year ago. I am incredibly thankful for all the support I have received.

Campaign Partners

This campaign is sponsored in part by:

Sponsored by Central Florida Cares Health System, Inc. and the State of Florida, Department of Children & Families.

If your company, organization, or school is interested in partnering with TWLOHA for Suicide Prevention Month, send us an email at [email protected] and tell us your idea!

Get Email Updates

Sign up for our newsletter to hear updates from our team and how you can help share the message of hope and help.