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When Music Speaks to the Soul: My Emotional Journey with Nati Dreddd’s “Apocalypse”

Jamie Hairston
4 min readAug 28, 2024

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I found this song in my music library when my phone was on a random shuffle. I have no idea how it became saved to my playlist, but it was extremely fitting for what I felt when it came across my playlist.

Photo by Stephen Neimeier via Pexels

A few weeks ago, I was really struggling with my mental health in general because it seemed like I was having a lot of back-to-back crises. They were all tied to me, even if they were not related directly to me.

The biggest issue I was having at the time was related to my grandmother and her medical needs, as she was experiencing a rapid decline in her mobility and health.

My grandmother has dementia, and I had to place her in a nursing home in 2021. Up until a few months ago, she was one of the most high-functioning clients there, based on my observation. She was mobile and was not a real fall risk. While her memory did seem to decline steadily, it was not so bad that she could not remember people.

Then, almost overnight, things took a drastic turn for the worse. She fell three days in a row. I had arranged hospice care for her, but she did end up requiring stitches after one of her falls, and then she went from being mobile to almost bedridden. I was afraid we were going to lose her, and while I accept that is where she is…

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Jamie Hairston
Jamie Hairston

Written by Jamie Hairston

Jamie is a former addiction counselor who now writes fiction about substance abuse and mental health issues.

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