“The first time I heard ‘Butterfly Fly Away,’ I didn’t just hear a song about growing up. I heard the story of my mother surviving domestic violence and teaching me that even after trauma, we could still dream.”

I didn’t always have the words for what I was feeling, only a body that stayed on high alert. Mental health, for me, began as survival.

Many survivors stay silent for years. Learn why fear, shame, and manipulation keep victims quiet—and why being believed matters.

Sometimes the songs we hold onto as children are the ones that quietly teach us to believe in something better.

Water slowed my racing heart long before I knew I was having panic attacks. My body knew how to survive before I had words.

Trauma may live in the past, but the body remembers. Survivors deserve belief, not “just get over it.”