From Adversity to Advocacy – Thriving after Trauma on Mental Health Day

Today is Mental Health Day, a time to break silence, challenge stigma, and speak truth. For me, it is more than a date on the calendar. It is a moment to reflect on the journey from surviving to truly living.

I am a survivor of Child sexual abuse.

Those words are never easy to write, and the impact of that trauma is not something I ‘got over.’  It is something I have learned to live with, work through, and grow around. Trauma does not come with an expiry date. It lingers in the nervous system, in relationships, in the way we see ourselves, and yet, even with all of that, healing is possible. Thriving is possible.

But let me be honest, it has not been a straight path, I have faced two breakdowns. Times when the weight of it all felt unbearable. Times when, I questioned whether there was a way forward, but it was in those darkest places that I started to rebuild, not into the person I was before, but into someone new. Someone real. Someone stronger, even with the scars.

The Power of Peer Support

Out of that pain, something powerful grew. Take Cover, a peer-to-peer community support groups I started to help others who are walking similar paths. I created Take Cover because I know what it feels like to need someone who understands, not just in theory, but in lived reality. Sometimes the most healing words come from someone who is simply willing to sit with you in the silence, in the storm and say, “Me too.”

Peer support is not about fixing each other. It is about showing up, sharing space, and reminding each other that we are not alone, and that message is what I want to share today. YOU ARE NOT ALONE.

Thriving with, not despite adversity

Too often, we hear the phrase ‘overcoming adversity’ like it is a battle you either win or lose. But thriving is not about pretending the pain never happened. It is about learning how to carry it differently. It is about finding moments of peace in chaos, moments of joy in the cracks, and purpose in the places you once thought were ruined.

Living with trauma does not make you broken. It makes you human, and choosing to keep going, to keep healing, reaching out, and growing, is radical, beautiful act of strength.

A Message for Today

If you are reading this and you are struggling, please know, you are not weak, reaching out for help is one of the bravest things you can do. Healing is not linear. There will be good days and hard ones, but every step matters. Every breath matters. Every time you choose to show up for yourself or someone else, you are doing the work of recovery, and if you have walked through hell and made it back you carry a light the world needs. Do not hide it. Share it, use it. That is what I am trying to do, one story, one conversation, one peer to peer connection at a time.

This Mental Health Day. Let us not just talk about awareness. Let us talk about action. About listening about holding space for the stories that hurt to tell, about building communities where healing is not only possible but celebrated.

FROM ADVERSITY, WE CAN GROW

FROM PAIN, WE CAN RISE

AND FROM TRAUMA, WE CAN THRIVE, TOGETHER

TOGETHER WE CONQUER TOGETHER WE HEAL