**If you feel in despair and darkness, talk to someone who can understand and help you through. Please CALL 1564 Embrace LifeLine Lebanon.**
Lebanese people woke up on Thursday with colorful little notes on their car window shields, telling them that together they can overcome their pain and that their pain matters. So many felt so grateful for the messages that they called the Embrace center that took that effort to leave them these notes and they express their thanks, saying that these messages were exactly the words of motivation they needed to begin their day with. Some also took it upon themselves to send the note to their loved ones and the people they knew needed it too.
We all need lifting from time to time but some need to be daily surrounded by caring support from their loved ones when their depression is critical or chronic.
Sadly, mental health is often depicted as an “exaggeration” of emotions, or perceived as one being a “drama queen”. According to the British Mental Health Foundation, “People with the highest levels of self-rated distress (compared to lowest rates of distress) were 32% more likely to have died from cancer. Depression has been found to be associated with an increased risk of coronary heart disease.”
@embrace_lebanon**If you feel in despair and darkness, talk to someone who can understand and help you through. Please CALL 1564 Embrace LifeLine Lebanon.**
Embrace has confirmed that 10,452 messages were distributed across Lebanon by volunteers who believe that helping others fight through their mental health by words of love and encouragement is the best help they can offer. These volunteers started their journey of support from 12:00 midnight and finished at 5:00 AM to make sure their messages reach the most people at the start of their day.
That small yet effective initiative proved that supporting mental health does not always need a Ph.D. in psychotherapy or psychology. More often than not, the simple act of acknowledging the pain of someone and offering a shoulder to cry on can save somebody’s life.
Embrace Lebanon is a non-profit organization that works to raise awareness around mental health in our country. It is well known for its Lifeline 1564 that has received, only in 2018, over 1500 calls for emotional support and suicide prevention. According to Embrace, in Lebanon, on average, every 3 days one person dies of suicide and, on average, every six hours, one person attempts suicide.
**If you feel in despair and darkness, talk to someone who can understand and help you through. Please CALL 1564 Embrace LifeLine Lebanon.**
@whatworksforhibaAn Embrace volunteer, Hassan Yassine, who was part of the initiative on Mental Health Day, said, “Most people pass by difficulties on a daily basis. All they need sometimes is a message of comfort or a smile. Giving out over 300 of these notes means that I might have impacted more than 300 people and changed their days into better. My troubles are different than theirs, but our smiles are the same.”
It is small initiatives like this one that shows that no matter how many conflicts and diversities Lebanon deals with every day, we must all put our differences aside and unite to support and comfort each other. After all, all we have in this life is each other…
**If you feel in despair and darkness, talk to someone who can understand and help you through. Please CALL 1564 Embrace LifeLine Lebanon.**
