Teri Drake-Floyd works at Nuçi's Space, a musician's health and resource center in Athens, Georgia built to prevent suicide and keep working musicians alive, healthy, and making music. By night, she writes southern gothic and horror fiction under the pen name Lillah Lawson, pulling from her own family's history to tell stories most people are too afraid to tell. In this episode, we talk about the language shift Nuçi's Space uses on purpose, calling it "brain illness" instead of "mental illness," and why that one word change can change how someone accesses care. We talk about the moment Teri realized a friend had once used a real crisis intervention method to save her life, years before she got trained in that exact method herself. And we talk about the family story, and the great-great-grandmother nobody would speak about, that became the seed for her debut novel. This is a conversation about grief, about the stories families keep quiet, and about what it actually looks like to rebuild after your glass breaks. Mental Health Resources: If you or someone you know is struggling, the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline is available 24/7. Call or text 988 to reach a trained counselor, day or night, anywhere in the U.S. Clearapy is a call-in support service for the moments when you're not in crisis, but you still need someone to talk to. For $15 an hour, you can call and be connected with someone right away, no waitlist and no scheduling weeks out. It's built for that in-between space, not a crisis, not nothing, just needing a real person on the other end of the line. Call (863) 334-2447 to connect. If you are in crisis, please use the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline instead. Nuçi's Space: Nuçi's Space is a nonprofit in Athens, Georgia built to prevent suicide, with a focus on musicians. They provide referrals for depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation, underwrite the cost of care for musicians, and help anyone find low-cost or sliding scale mental health support. Website: nuci.org Blog: https://www.nuci.org/blog "Beautiful Here: Emerging from the Overwhelming Darkness" by Linda Phillips, Nuçi's mother and the founder of Nuçi's Space. https://www.amazon.com/Beautiful-Here-Emerging-Overwhelming-Darkness/dp/1537413678 Also available for purchase through the Nuçi's Space website. Teri's Books (writing as Lillah Lawson): https://bookshop.org/beta-search?keywords=Lillah+Lawson&bkshp-astro=t https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B00ZGWF2DM
