From Pain to Peace: Rock Band Hooked Like Helen's Journey Through Mental Health and Music

Throughout the year, Atwood Magazine invites members of the music industry to participate in a series of essays reflecting on identity, music, culture, inclusion, and more.

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Today, Nikki Stipp of Ohio alt-rock band Hooked Like Helen shares her essay, “From Pain to Peace,” about finding inspiration in her own mental health struggles and channeling despair and rage into music that connects with listeners’ shared experiences, as a part of Atwood Magazine’s Mental Health Awareness Month series. Through their songs, Hooked Like Helen navigate trauma collectively, offering catharsis and healing while advocating for open discussions to destigmatize mental illness.

Within a year of inheriting a small home studio, Nikki and Jon Stipp created Hooked Like Helen and became sought after by music supervisors for E!, MTV, Netflix and more. The band’s ballad, “Liar” quite literally inspired the script for the film “High Strung: Free Dance” (Jane Seymour) which featured the song in a pivotal dance sequence. Nikki custom scored for 9 scenes across the 3-time Emmy-winning docu-series “CHEER,” and continues to provide music for upcoming titles through BMG.

In tandem with their sync success, Hooked Like Helen has developed a reputation as an extremely energetic, emotionally moving live act. In 2023, the band completed two national tours with Icon For Hire and No Resolve/Halocene, opened for Jewel, Taylor Hicks, and Blood Sweat & Tears, and played as direct support for PVRIS at Sandusky Pride. Hooked Like Helen is slated to release a waterfall of new alternative rock material this year. They are currently in the studio with several heavy-hitting rock producers, recording the music that won over thousands of fans on tour.

Hooked Like Helen is cultivating a community of healing. Through dark lyrical themes of childhood trauma and substance abuse, HLH crafts relatable sing-along anthems of hope and resilience. “Sleepwalker” – a song for those struggling with addiction – is a fan favorite and has been featured on Loudwire Nights and spun on 36 commercial rock stations. Nikki is 11 years sober, and uses her platform to illuminate a path of survival.

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“FROM PAIN TO PEACE”

by Nikki Stipp, Hooked Like Helen

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Mental health is a recurring theme in much of our music.

More accurately, mental illness is a topic we often grapple with in the lyrics of our songs. As the primary songwriter for Hooked Like Helen, I tend to write my most authentic work when I’m drawing from the darkest corners of my psyche; I’m inspired by my pain because the creation of new music is what soothes it. Despair, mania, rage: These are my muses, and the act of reorganizing that noise into something that can be sung out loud is the endorphin hit I crave. It’s the thing that connects our band to other humans; we bond with our listeners through our mutual experience of unwell-ness and our mutual need for melody to fill in the gaping wounds.

It’s strange then, that barely over a decade ago, I was mostly oblivious to “mental health” as an aspect of overall health, and was totally oblivious to my personal deficit in the area. It was at a soundcheck for a show for my solo project circa 2012 that my friend and back-up singer informed me that she had been diagnosed with clinical anxiety and that she was medicated for it. Anxiety? Like, being nervous? She described it as a feeling of general stress and worry – a feeling that negatively impacted her life. In a moment of textbook denial, I consoled her politely and thought to myself how lucky I was not to be afflicted by such a condition. I then proceeded to run across the street to the neighboring bar and slam 3 shots of tequila to “take the edge off” before the show. Oh, the irony!

It took years of (firstly) becoming sober from my alcoholism, and looking inward and being honest with myself to realize that I was, in fact, not mentally healthy.

Not emotionally, not spiritually, and as a byproduct, not physically healthy, either. With the newfound sobriety came so much unraveling of the other unhealthy behaviors. One by one, I was peeling back the layers of the dysfunctional coping mechanisms I had built up over my life. It took a little longer than it could have, because I was tending to replace vices with slightly less damaging or more socially acceptable vices. I had yet to process the “whys” of all the eating disorders, addictions, nervous tics, “doom” attacks and unpredictable highs and lows. It took until the 2020 lockdown for me to break open the true origin of it all: Trauma.

We’ve found that trauma is another subject that Hooked Like Helen has in common with so many of our listeners. We process our collective trauma together, bit by bit, through the music. The shows are cathartic for us. Rocking out and throwing ourselves around on stage physically, screaming our truth into the mic, and absorbing the energy of the crowd is nothing short of therapeutic. Talking with the fans after our sets and hearing their stories of trauma, tragedy and triumph is an honor and a symbiotic experience of healing.

Songs like our new single “OCD (these thoughts again)” are our 3 minute and 10 second way of expressing what it feels like to be overwhelmed by a brain on fire. Our version of “Duality” by Slipknot is a deep dive into those moments when it feels like the trauma is winning. “Sleepwalker” is a plea to a loved one to realize they are worthy of living a life free of addiction. “Promise Me You’ll Run” is written from the point of view of the deeply disturbed serial killer, Aileen Wuornos, whose lifetime of trauma collided with a kaleidoscope of mental illnesses, resulting in a year-long murder spree of 7 men.

The fact that mental health has become a bit of a buzz phrase recently is great progress.

The more openly we can discuss it, the easier it is for people who need help to get it. We recognize that similarly to physical health, genetics play a major role in mental wellness. De-stigmatizing these kinds of illnesses is a necessary piece of the puzzle.

Hooked Like Helen takes pride in the fact that we are authentic in our music and our message, and that we find others like us through our songs. We know that healing and mental health is an ongoing process, a journey of a lifetime, and we’re on the road to Peace by way of Rock and Roll. – Nikki Stipp

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