Jamie Tworkowski Biography
Anxiety, worry, and depression are some of the most serious mental health problems faced by a majority of Americans but hardly talked about. Death by suicide is the third highest cause of death in the United States and 2 out of 3 cases were caused by mental health issues. This number points to the seriousness of mental health. Jamie Tworkowski,43, is passionate about speaking about mental health.
He is an inspirational speaker and life coach who specifically deals with mental health. He is also an international best-selling author. Becoming a speaker was never in his dreams and most surprisingly he never knew he would suffer from what he spoke about. This is Jamie’s interesting biography.
Jamie Tworkowski Age and Family
He comes from a close family. His parents are still alive. Jamie is a brother to Emily and Sean and an uncle to his brother’s two children. He was born on 24th January 1978. Despite his success, Jamie is unmarried. He lives on his own in Nashville while his parents are in Florida.
Becoming an International Sensation
The story of becoming an international sensation started when a young boy gripped his dream job as a sales representative in Hurley. For some time, Jamie was living the life he wanted until he met Renee Yohe.
Yohe suffered from addiction to coke, weed, pills, and self-mutilation. Jamie met her through a mutual friend whom he had rented a room from. Yohe had just been declined entry to a local treatment because they thought she would get a seizure if she went through the detox process. She went with her friend Dave, also Jamie’s friend, to his house where Jamie was also staying. For the five days she had, Jamie talked to her and asked her to write her story.
On MySpace, Jamie wrote a two-and-a-half page article about Renee’s story with the title To Write Love of Her Arms. The story went viral. Hundred of people commented saying they have or know a similar story. He designed a t-shirt and sold it to a growing audience to raise money to pay for her treatment. Hundreds of people responded by sending money. The audience started in the United States and later in other countries.
Jamie wrote the article in February and in June, he quit his dream job at Hurley to start an organization with an online audience. A nonprofit organization was born out of his article, He named it using the article’s title initials TWLOHA. A big charity organization offered to help them run the organization and learn everything. Fifteen years later now, the organization is still running, helping thousands with mental health conditions. Renee also got her treatment and recovered from her addiction. She also got the opportunity to share her story. You can follow it here.
TWLOHA on the Rise and Jamie Depressed
Although Jamie had doubts about running the organization full-time, he had more faith in it succeeding. In fact, it became bigger than he had initially expected. It became a global nonprofit organization helping thousands of people by selling them hope and helping people suffering from depression, addiction, suicidal thoughts, and self-injury.
Twloha started a website that has responded to 210,000 messages and has traveled 3.8 million miles to reach people, started a blog and podcast to inform people about people caring about them. The success of the organization encouraged him to write the book If You Feel Too Much, Expanded Edition: Thoughts on Things Found and Lost and Hoped. The book was rated 4.5 and became and New York best seller.
Jamie, who served as an executive director in TWLOHA, began suffering from what they fought, depression. This condition affected his performance as a leader. TWLOHA being his baby, Jamie felt the need to micro-manage. But his style was not effective. In 2017, his teammates shared with him their feelings about his leadership.
Jamie went on Sabbatical and returned to the organization as a speaker instead of the Executive Director. In a letter he wrote to the audience, he said dropping his role as a leader was the best decision for the survival of the company. In 2017, he seized from being an employee of the organization and became an independent contractor. 2021, Jamie added in the letter that he had quit working with TWLOHA. He confirmed that he would work independently as a speaker.
His Recovery and Success
Jamie now regularly speaks at events. He works with an arts and entertainment company called Collective Speakers. His main topic is mental health. He continues to help thousands in their recovery, and healing journey and giving them hope. He also founded a clothing company called Needs an Ocean from his childhood passion for surfing. The company sells t-shirts, hoods, and surfing boards.
Jamie also suffered from depression. Knowing how to respond, he regularly visits his therapist and uses antidepressant drugs. As a business person and speaker, we can say that Jamie is in good hands. He runs an Instagram page where he shares his content and whereabouts. You can also catch him on his website. More can only be expected from him. Other people with similar and inspiring stories are Jennifer Lucy Tyler and Tori Hope Petersen.
