This is the very first letter written to the World Health Organization. We sent $10. Hopefully we can do much better in the future!
September 19, 2007
To the director of the Mental Health Division,
My name is Lily Strange. I am a writer, a clairsentient medium, and a person who suffers from bipolar disorder and borderline personality disorder. In 2005 I made contact with the spirit of a fascinating man, a musician and poet who committed suicide in 1991 after enduring a life fraught with psychological anguish. We ended up writing a book called Lost Beneath the Surface together. It is in part a fictionalized account of my co-author's internal struggles. We wanted this book to be more than an interesting read. We wanted it to be a means of helping others who suffer from mental illness, perhaps even a means of preventing others from making the same tragic mistake that my co-author did.
It is one of life's greatest tragedies to see a person robbed of their potential by self-hate caused by organic mental illness, abuse, or both. Suicide is heartbreaking, both for the person who cuts their life short and for those who cared for them. As someone who struggles with feelings of self-hate and thoughts of suicide but yet lacks the income and the trust in medical and psychiatric professionals due to past maltreatment and belittlement by said individuals, I have my personal reasons for hoping to see this deplorable state of affairs change for the better.
As someone who became very lost and didn't know where to turn for the help he so desperately needed during his life, my co-author would like to prevent others from making the same terrible mistake he made. He would like to use this story to call attention to improving treatment of the mentally ill worldwide. He would also like to clear up misconceptions about who he truly was, particularly regarding the reason for his suicide. He especially wishes to refute the idea that he would approve of others committing suicide. He wants those who genuinely cared about him to know that he is still here and he watches over them. I want to help him tell his story and to accomplish something that he feels is truly meaningful. I want him to feel that his life wasn't in vain.
The major mission of this book is to donate money to those who can make the greatest difference in the treatment of persons suffering from mental illness so that in the future, hopefully in the not too distant future, nobody feels that they have nowhere to turn when suicidal. Many mentally ill individuals cannot afford proper treatment. Government funded mental health agencies are often too overburdened to be effective for the number of people that actually need them. Each person deserves individualized care because everyone is different. Blanket diagnoses and treatments do not work. The stigma must be removed from the diagnosis of mental illness. The mentally ill deserve to be treated with dignity and compassion.
We chose the World Health Organization because you share this belief and because you have influence over medical care of people in many countries worldwide. This is why we choose to contribute half of the profits made from this book to supporting your efforts.
In a nutshell our mission is this:
Spread the truth--end the stigma. Suicide can only be prevented by compassionate counsel, not by patronizing prejudice.
Although this first donation is embarrassingly small, we hope that we can get others to join us in making our mission a success so that forthcoming checks will be far more substantial. We pledge our support to helping you bring better treatment to the millions of mentally ill persons worldwide.
If you would like to learn more about the book, the official website is at http://www.lilystrange.com
If you would like a copy, you need only email me and I will send you one promptly.
Sincerely,
Lily Strange
On behalf of myself and my co-author, Per
