WP2: Trauma The Musical

Published in

Writing 150

2 min readApr 10, 2023

Growing up, my life was drenched in instability which manifested through my family relationships, financial insecurity, and negative self image. My childhood was not a time I was allowed to be a child. At the ripe age of 8 years old I was diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder and Generalised Anxiety. Living the majority of my conscious childhood under the constant shadows of my diagnoses, I became my mental illness. I embodied the disorders I had and turned them into my identity.

Through the instability I faced growing up in less than ideal circumstances, it seems that all I have been left with is trauma. But, to make such a claim would discredit any positive outcomes from my childhood. Despite my seemingly tragic upbringing, the one thing that always stayed constant and secure was music. Through the hardest times of my life, music was there for me. Music was how I coped with my reality then and music is how I am healing from my trauma now. Regardless of all the pain, the most significant thing my childhood trauma has done for me is creating my relationship with music, something I would never change even if it meant I would have grown up with the best life known to man.

The purpose of this WP2 archive is to explore mental health through the lens of music. My trauma and mental health battles shape the person I am today and the identity that I carry. I believe that music has done the same. So through this project, I want to find a way to connect the two.

I believe that the music I listen to is a large reflection of what is going on in my head and in my life. Music has been central to helping me cope with my experiences. Music represents that part of my identity in a way that is more tangible and relatable for others. Music is universal, and through its incorporation into my archive I want to take others along my mental health journey.

The archive is Trauma the Musical. It is broken up into two main acts. Each act deals with a significant source of trauma in my life and is comprised of three scenes. Each scene is centered around its own song. The songs are woven into narrations of my life experiences to demonstrate music’s connection to my trauma and identity.

Act 1: Abuse/Mother