Kether Donohue Instagram – When I made Stay, my intentions were to bring comfort to anyone in pain who the song resonates with, to help raise funds & awareness for #suicideprevention (donating to @afspnational) & to use the song as a creative outlet to be an educational tool in raising awareness about #CPTSD, the lyrics touching on dissociative symptoms and flashbacks. The whole heart of the song is tools I learned in therapy, non-judgement & compassion for every part of myself. In my stories is a suicide prevention article where “Dr Harkavy-Friedman [from The American Foundation of Suicide Prevention] shared the four words that she lives by in her life & practice, and these apply especially to people who are thinking about suicide: compassion, respect, patience, & persistence.” The tools I learned in therapy called on me to relate to CPTSD with Compassion, Patience, Truthtelling, Sensitivity, & Dedication. The last thing I wanted or needed was for someone to wave a bunny in my face, invalidate my pain, & tell me to quickly cheer up, but I did need comfort & hope & I did need someone to see a better version of me that I couldn’t see at that time. So I wanted to make a song that sang to someone lyrics of validation & comfort, that you might be experiencing a freeze symptom of trauma or a dissociative response where you don’t feel you’re in your body, but to Stay anyway. The song is about staying with our own feelings or lack of feeling in the midst of debilitating, confusing, painful & isolating symptoms, but it’s also about staying with eachother, with non judgment & compassion & listening with compassion to learn why someone feels the way they do. Stay was about integrating my mental, emotional, & spiritual health into a creative outlet and to make something beautiful out of something that once felt and seemed irreparable. I now know that God made me on purpose and promised me there’s nothing that is broken beyond repair. There’s a lot that I don’t know, but what I do know is that if you don’t know why you’re here, stick around to find out why. I do know that you are ON PURPOSE. I promise you are here on purpose and that you belong here. Call or text 988 for 24/7 support