We love Conquer Divide’s single Paralyzed!
Guitarist Kristen Sturgis shares: “This song is about battling with mental illness and depression —especially during the pandemic — and feeling like you are too mentally paralyzed to move forward.”
She continues, revealing her deeply personal experience working as a nurse during COVID, saying: “I was in a dark place because, as some people may or may not know, I am a critical care nurse when I am not touring. I was traveling around the country to all these hot spots to help-out with COVID, and I saw dozens of people lose their lives. And I still really have not fully processed it.”
Sturgis further explains: “But if you do not disconnect, you can’t do your job effectively. So, it is the kind of depression where you don’t feel anything at all, and you turn your emotions off. There was a point where they had psychologists visiting us on the unit to talk about our feelings. But it was like, ‘I don’t have time for this right now. I need to hang the next bag of x/y/z medication and keep this person alive. Get back to me in a year after this is all over.’ I think a lot of health care workers are also going to have PTSD or depression from what we went through. I hit a bit of writer’s block as a result of my mental state, and this song was a bit cathartic for me.”