Helpguide's Story

Helpguide’s purpose is to help you and your family understand, prevent and resolve mental and physical health challenges. We hope you will be inspired to become more “health literate,” and to have better informed discussions and “shared decision-making” with your health care providers. That is our mission and purpose, and our hope is that we succeed in helping you help yourself to a healthier and happier life.

Our daughter, Morgan Leslie Segal, died ten years ago at the age of 29.

In 1996, SSRI antidepressant medications were considered safe by the FDA. Now, these very popular drugs are required to carry a warning: 

“Antidepressants increase the risk of suicidal thinking and behavior (suicidality) in children and adolescents with major depressive disorder (MDD) and other psychiatric disorders . . . “

Unfortunately, these warnings came too late for Morgan.

Morgan was described by many who knew her as "an angel," "a rising talented writer," and "a young woman with great intelligence and sensitivity." Nevertheless, she had very little “Mental Health literacy.” For six years, she grappled with a condition that started as low self-esteem and worsened into major depression. The therapist she chose and the variety of SSRI and other medications prescribed by the consulting psychiatrist were not working well, but still she didn’t learn about alternatives and explore alternative paths. In the sixth year of her therapy, while taking the prescribed SSRI medications, she attempted suicide twice; the second time she succeeded, and we lost our daughter.

Helpguide was born of the conviction that “health literacy” is vital. Our purpose is to provide you with accurate and easily accessible information on the topics that affect your life, and the lives of your family and friends. We aim to give you sufficient understanding of a condition and the key approaches for treatment so that you can ask intelligent questions of your health care practitioner. We hope you become knowledgeable enough to actively participate in important health care and lifestyle decisions.    

The Rotary Club of Santa Monica and WISE & Healthy Aging made Helpguide a joint project. Many talented and dedicated researchers and writers are working to provide you with concise, up-to-date coverage of vital topics coupled with carefully selected non-commercial references to enable you to delve deeper.

Helpguide now attracts over 7.25 million visitors a year – with no advertising of any kind. We are gratified by the increasing effectiveness of our articles. We receive frequent emails and survey responses describing Helpguide’s benefits to our readers; a recent example involved Anxiety Medications, where the reader’s informed discussion with his therapist significantly and successfully altered the course of treatment.

We hope you are inspired and motivated to use Helpguide to become “health literate” and understand, prevent and resolve challenging mental and physical health issues in your life or in the lives of your family and friends..

- Robert and Jeanne Segal

About Morgan and Morgan's Voice

Morgan had a normal childhood. She graduated from Crossroads High School in Santa Monica, then the University of California at Santa Barbara. She continued her professional writing studies at Sarah Lawrence College and the University of Southern California. She was active in school publications and in community service programs.

After her death, we found her laptop computer containing a collection of her personal poems and stories. This led to the publication of Morgan's Voice. In the words of Al Martinez, LA Times columnist, "She wrote whimsy as well as she wrote tense and somber drama, reflecting elements of herself, as a writer must, in such a way as to reveal both the light and the shadows that alternately brightened and darkened her soul."

Click here to support the Helpguide project. Donors of $100 or more will receive a copy of Morgan’s Voice.