The social isolation caused by COVID-19 has many people feeling Zoom fatigue and yearning for real-life interactions. But for those who struggle with mental health disorders, the isolation can feel amplified.
September is also Suicide Prevention Awareness Month, so one Juneau resident, Melissa McCormick, is focused on spreading positive messages throughout the community.
McCormick said she spends a lot of her time trying to lift people up, in part, because she knows what it’s like to experience loss.
Her son, Speier, struggled with bipolar disorder for years before taking his own life in October 2017.
“We always said that Speier had a fire inside of him,” she said. “He had a lot of passion about a lot of things that he was working on.”
With that sentiment as her inspiration, McCormick founded a nonprofit in 2018 called Find Your Fire. The organization aims to help young adults find their passions, learn life skills and develop strong mental health foundations.
“We tell them to be you and not anybody else,” she said. “You’re basically already enough.”
Now McCormick is distributing yard signs with similar messages to homes all over Juneau, in hopes of reminding others that they’re not alone.
“The more popular ones are: ‘We’re all in this together,’ ‘You matter,’ ‘Don’t give up,’ ‘You are enough,’ ‘You are worthy of love,’” McCormick said.
Although McCormick has had the signs since 2018, she said they grew in popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic. So far this year, she has distributed more than 400 signs to people who requested them.
“One gentleman, in particular, came up to me and asked me if I was the one who helped put the signs up in Juneau and I said, ‘Yes.’ And he said, ‘Well your sign just saved my life,’” McCormick said.
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The man said he had been struggling with his mental health and after seeing the sign, sought help from the Juneau Alliance for Mental Health.
“So it was one of those moments where you just get those chills and think, ‘Wow, I may have made a difference in one person’s life with just a simple message,’” McCormick said.
In August, McCormick took to Facebook to promote the signs for Suicide Prevention Awareness Month. The response was overwhelming and she’s had to beef up her sign orders.
“We do give (the signs) away,” she said. “There’s not a charge. Occasionally people will make a donation but it’s not required. We are a little bit low on our funding, but it’s always nice to see them in the community.”
For the most part, McCormick has used the money she’d set aside for Speier’s college fund to pay for the signs.
Casey DenAdel is one of the Juneau residents who asked McCormick for a “You matter” sign to put in her window.
“I am somebody who lived through a suicide attempt and I have two really close family members who also lived through attempts,” DenAdel said. “So it’s a subject that’s really near and dear to my heart.”
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The other side of her sign says “Don’t give up,” so DenAdel flips it over from time to time, alternating messages.
“By putting signs up, it gets it out there that it’s okay to talk about mental health issues and that people aren’t alone in this,” she said. “There are so many of us who think that there’s something wrong with us when there are just so many more of us than you think there are — we’re normal people.”
DenAdel plans to keep the sign in her window, not just for September, but for the foreseeable future.
Those who’d like to order a sign can visit findyourfire.net or email findyourfire907@gmail.com.
If you or someone you know is dealing with thoughts of suicide, you can call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-8255 or the Alaska Careline any time of day or night at 877-266-HELP.
