CONNECTED SISTERS

Sisters Taking On the Prevention Of Suicide (STOPS) STOP Suicide Through E.R.I.C.

Sisters Taking On the Prevention of Suicide (STOPS) was founded in May 2015 by Andrea Mustin, a wife whose former husband, Eric D. Wright, lived with bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder, and anxiety. The man who was her soul mate of 20 years died by suicide on December 2, 2013, and she didn’t see it coming.

Who We Are

For women who have friends and/or loved ones living with a mental illness, Sisters Taking On the Prevention of Suicide (STOPS) is a mental health awareness organization that inspires and gives hope through Education, Research, Inspiration (Advocacy), and Community – through E.R.I.C.

Our vision is a world where all women are Mental Health Champions for themselves, their families, and their communities.

Our mission is to reduce suicide rates by delivering mental health awareness training and support to women who have friends and/or loved ones living with a mental illness.

Our goal is to build an empowered sisterhood of more than one million informed, engaged, and connected women who will act as Mental Health Champions and commit to fighting the battle against suicide.

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Our Programs

Two of our key approaches for raising awareness are our Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) course and Sisters Helping Each Other (SHE), our peer-to-peer support group. In our MFHA classroom training, our goal is to equip 20 women per year with the skills to identify and respond to those exhibiting signs of mental illnesses or substance abuse, and through SHE, our goal is to offer monthly meetings for caregiving women interested in receiving information and sisterly support to cope with their circumstances.

At STOPS, we believe a single flame can light one thousand candles. With our programs, our goal is to ignite each woman to fight the battle against suicide, so that she may in turn ignite her community, and in conjunction with other women, the entire world.

Our Founding Board Members

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Andrea Mustin

Founder & President

I stand up for Eric Dublon Wright, my former husband who lived with bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder, and anxiety. The man who was my soul mate of 20 years died by suicide on December 2, 2013, and I didn’t see it coming.

A few months after Eric’s death, by the grace of God, I moved from West Houston to North Dallas to be closer to family. I had the opportunity to meet and make new friends through relatives, volunteer work, social gatherings, and local businesses.

I shared Eric’s story with my new and close female friends, and was astonished by their sympathetic reactions and honest and secretive disclosures – 100% of my new friends had experienced bouts of depression or anxiety, lived with someone who has experienced severe episodes of mania or depression, or knew someone who lived with a mental health challenge or disorder, and I didn’t know what to tell them.

Suicide is not an issue that affected only my family, but other families in our city, state and across the country. To this day, I continue to meet women who are either directly or indirectly affected by mental health challenges. Once they hear Eric’s story, they can’t help but share theirs.

I became involved in the suicide prevention movement because I want to increase mental health awareness and help stop the stigma of mental illness. I want to redeem the value of Eric’s life and other lives lost by suicide by equipping women with the knowledge and skills needed to help prevent suicide, and save lives in their communities. The end of Eric’s life was not the end of his story, for Sisters Taking On the Prevention of Suicide (STOPS) was born through him. To God be the glory! Thank you, LORD Jesus!

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Tonya Striplin

Vice President & Secretary

While we are compassionate of others when hard times hit, it really resonates when hard times hit home. Mental illness found its way to my home in 2013 with the shocking loss of my dear brother in-law and witnessing my sister piece her life back together. Since then, my family has been impacted after painfully learning of adolescent friends who were diagnosed with depression. In addition, I have a friend who lost her son to suicide while he was away at college. As a parent, witnessing your child endure any pain is incredibly difficult, but losing a child must be outright devastating.

Being a person filled with hope, it deeply saddened me to think of others who had none, and felt suicide was their only alternative. However, since mental illness has begun to take up residency in my home, I’ve become more educated about it. I’ve realized suicide is just that, the result of an illness, and the power of the illness can be simply overwhelming.

Despite this, my hope remains steadfast and my prayer, by joining this suicide prevention movement, is to find ways to more effectively treat mental illness, educate the public about it so that they too can be more compassionate and get involved, and to provide coping strategies for friends and family members of loved ones who are living with or lost, to mental illness.

Together, let’s put a STOP to suicide.

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Ergieleena Teasley

Treasurer

I stand up for my distant cousin, who at the age of 22, died by suicide. I stand up for my dear brother-in-law, who lost his life to suicide in 2013. I stand up for my close relative who had thoughts of taking their life in 2016 and was subsequently diagnosed with major depressive disorder. I stand up for another close relative, who recently shared their thoughts of suicide and continues to exhibit signs of depression and anxiety. While the road has been far from easy, I am still standing. I stand up for mental health.

In dire need of help, I joined the mental health awareness movement after learning of my relatives’ illnesses. I needed to understand what they were going through and how best to support them. In the process, I began to experience compassion fatigue and needed guidance, direction, and encouragement from others who had experienced what I was going through. I needed to be in the company of someone just like me, a woman who has or had a loved one, living with mental illness. I needed Sisters Taking On the Prevention of Suicide (STOPS.)

It is through STOPS that I am able to understand my relative’s mental illness and support them on their road to recovery.

It is through STOPS that I am able to know when and how to step in and offer support to my other close relative, as they gradually come to terms with their undiagnosed mental health condition.

It is through STOPS that I have learned that I am not alone and have regained my emotional strength and energy.

It is through STOPS that I am effectively informed, engaged, and connected in the mental health movement.

My experience with STOPS has been invaluable and has helped me to keep standing.

I stand up for mental health. STOPS stands up for mental health. And it is our hope that YOU will stand up, for mental health too.

Galatians 5:22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance

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Our Story Is His Story Eric Dublon Wright

"I stand up for Eric Dublon Wright, my former husband, who lived with bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder, and anxiety. The man who was my soul mate for 20 years died by suicide on December 2, 2013. The end of his life was NOT the end of his story.

Together we will put a STOP to suicide!"

Andrea Mustin, founder of Sisters Taking On the Prevention of Suicide (STOPS)

Imagine Eric Is Alive

Imagine Eric is alive thriving, and enjoying a life filled with happiness, good health, clarity, peace of mind, self-love, and spiritual fulfillment. He celebrates birthdays, holidays, and anniversaries with colleagues, close friends, and family members. Everyone he knows and meets is informed, compassionate, caring, and supportive of his mental health challenges and disorders:

  • They courageously build their own support systems and regain their emotional strength and energy so that they can effectively support him as he thrives and enjoys a life filled with happiness.
  • They thoroughly understand his mental health illness and recognize when he is experiencing a problem or is in crisis and provide initial help.
  • They graciously contribute to research dedicated to understanding, treating, and eventually curing his mental illness.
  • They passionately fight for policy reform that will hold his health insurance company accountable for FAIRLY covering his mental health expenses.
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Imagine a world where Eric and others like him are living their lives to the fullest, and every person with whom they interact with is informed, compassionate, and supportive of their illness. Imagine a world where empowered communities advocate for Eric and other people's success through Education, Resources, Inspiration (Advocacy), and Community - through E.R.I.C. The end of his life was NOT the end of his story.