Trigger warning: This article contains statistics and language that may trigger people suffering from a mental illness. 

Anxiety is the most common mental illness in the United States, affecting 40 million adults ages 18 or older. That is about 18 percent of the population, according to statistics provided by The National Institute of Mental Health.

To Write Love On Her Arms (TWLOHA), is a nationwide non-profit organization dedicated to finding help for people suffering from a mental illness. It presents hope and exists to encourage, inform and inspire. As well as, investments directly into treatment and recovery.

There is also a chapter here, at Iowa State.

The organization was brought to the community nearly a year and a half ago. Current president Julia Herrin, senior in psychology, was apart of its inception with the help from some of her friends.

“Our main goal is to raise awareness to mental illness and work on raising the stigma,” Herrin stated. “It looks a little different on a college campus, because we have had issues getting consistent members to come. A lot of our focus has been on trying to get members. We haven’t be able to get out into the community as much as we have wanted to.”  

Vice President, Savannah Findley, junior in child, adult and family services, came across the organization on the Student Organization page. She was looking for 1 or 2 clubs to join because it was her second semester of college, and she felt like she needed to get out into the community.

Self Injury Awareness Day landed on TWLOHA’s general meeting day, March 1. Findley spoke on behalf on her experiences with her mental health issues and things she has gone through to overcome it.

Their general meetings are held every first and third Wednesday of the month, and executive meetings are every second and fourth at 7 p.m. in Carver 196.

A general meeting is being with some sort of positive activity, consisting of either one good thing that happened during the week or going around and asking people on a scale of 1-10 how they are doing.

Then, they go into the “theme” of their meeting, which could be a presentation, a discussion, or an activity. To close the meeting, they try to end with an icebreaker or a game. 

For those unable to attend their general meeting, TWLOHA will also have a booth on display at the “Rock Your Body! Party” event that will be taking place on March 2 in the Cardinal Room of the Memorial Union from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m.

“Don’t be afraid to come by yourself, we are trying to be a very welcoming group and you definitely won’t be the only one coming by yourself. We are trying to make it more of a community” Herrin stated.

TWLOHA is currently working with a PR class that is focuses on the organization all semester. They are working on advertising and collecting data from focus groups together. Both are working together to put something together for Self Injury Awareness Day.