It was just over a year ago when I posted on my Facebook that I had thoughts of harming myself. I remember thinking that if I say it publicly then I’ll force myself to get help. The logic made sense in the moment.

And to be fair it worked. Concerned friends and family reached out, and I felt held and was able to hold on a little longer. I was in downtown LA , on the corner of 7th and Figueroa, crouched against a building listening to Brian Eno’s “Small Craft on a Milk Sea.” Linda picked me up and took me to the hospital. That post, looking back, was the start of me getting better.

Now Linda and I are making a film about what I felt like the day I wrote that Facebook post, what it feels like to live with untreated trauma. And not to put too fine a point on it, but living with untreated trauma is like living in a horror movie. PTSD flashbacks are waking nightmares, and sufferers often cannot distinguish between the flashback and reality. The only way to stop the haunting is to heal.

In a 2014 interview, Wes Craven said that horror film fans “don’t go into a theatre to have fear put into them; they go in to have fear taken out.” Horror films are a safe place to work out our deepest fears. In the case of Garage, it’s a safe place for the viewer to experience what people with trauma experience every day. But it’s also more than that: this experience will hopefully lead the audience to have more compassion and understanding for survivors of trauma and create a dialogue that leads to more people getting the help they need.

We’ve just started a Kickstarter campaign to help us raise the funds to shoot the movie in early November. Please become a part of Garage by making a contribution in any amount. CLICK HERE to make a contribution.