Take part in TalkLife’s #RealSelfie campaign this Sunday the 10th for World Suicide Prevention Day!

TalkLife is launching it’s latest campaign in New York’s Times Square this Friday! You can take part by sharing your own #RealSelfie and joining our mission to show people that it’s ok to not always be ok!

Photos by: SETH DINNERMAN — http://www.sethdinnermanphotography.com/

It’s shocking to think that an estimated 1m people die by suicide each year; that’s one person every 40 seconds. In fact, suicide is the number one killer for people aged 15–44.

We’re launching a campaign this World Suicide Prevention Day to support people to talk about their feelings and to share when things aren’t ok. We’re getting the campaign started in New York’s Time Square this Friday morning where we’ll be taking over the giant NASDAQ billboard to showcase some incredible #RealSelfies and show people that they are not alone and there is support out there.

The #RealSelfie Campaign encourages people to share a selfie holding up a piece of paper with a word or couple of words representing some of the more difficult feelings they experience...whatever the word is, it’s all about being real.

Photos by: SETH DINNERMAN — http://www.sethdinnermanphotography.com/

We’re not that great at talking about difficult feelings, especially on social media. We can feel ashamed, scared, embarrassed and it’s scary to open up. It’s much easier to share the positive parts of our lives.

Our culture is one of not wanting to burden others and to ‘be strong’. We feel we should be able to cope and when we can’t we often try to hide it and don’t tell people. We suffer in silence. Social media is one place where we especially don’t always show the whole story of what’s going on with our lives. But look behind the holiday snaps, the wedding selfies and the pictures of you generally looking pretty awesome (!) and there is often another story to be told.

We don’t tend to share those selfies…the ones where we don’t feel like getting out of bed, where we feel lonely, isolated, anxious, depressed, not good enough, overwhelmed….

And because we don’t share them, others don’t share them either and we forget that we might not be the only ones that have dark days or difficult periods in our lives.

But what if we did share these times too? Wouldn’t it be helpful to know that you’re not the only one who sometimes questions themselves, whose life isn’t picture perfect? Wouldn’t it be nice to know when our friends could do with a hug or a chat or just to know that the people around them care?

Photos by: SETH DINNERMAN — http://www.sethdinnermanphotography.com/

This Sunday the 10th of September we invite you to share your #RealSelfie across social media and just for one day to give the world a glimpse of what goes on behind the scenes. It’s super simple to get invoved and can make a huge difference…

Take a picture of yourself holding up your word Post on social media this Sunday using the hashtag #RealSelfie and tag TalkLife _talklife_ (Instagram) @TalkLifeApp (Twitter) Feel free to share a your story alongside your picture if you’d like!

Take part in the #RealSelfie this weekend and let’s show people that they’re not alone. TalkLife gives you a place to give and get support anytime of the day or night wherever you are in the world. If you are struggling right now don’t do it alone, reach out and ask for support.

For further sources of help and crisis support resources please follow this link.