Depression - Anxiety Mental Health - Personal Struggles Stigma of Mental Health

ANXIETY

BY: LIZ HARDIE

Wake up, feel empty, just hoping your anxiety gives you a break

You slept 12 hours but it only feels like one

No matter what you do the feeling you can’t shake

Your heart pounds and you feel like you can’t breathe

Thoughts consume your mind and again you are lost

Lost for hours it seems, gaining your composure seems impossible

You wish you could exit this black hole, you would at any cost

The smile people see is usually a front and extremely fake

You have learned putting it on is the best option

Not at all for you but the ones around you

Although you are smiling, you begin to zone

Zoned out of the conversation, consumed again, lost in your thoughts

Worried people are looking, laughing, even ridiculing you

They’re simply laughing at the story being told but your anxiety had made you this distraught

Disconnected somewhat from reality, you truly can’t see the difference

You panic, you want to exit quickly, be back home in your safe place, sleeping again

As you lay in bed, the pounding of your heart starts continues, faster and faster

You finally cry yourself to sleep, unsure of why you can’t break this feeling you can’t stand

Not too long after you fall asleep, you are awoken by a horrid nightmare

A nightmare you pray won’t come, yet they wake you more often than not

Kicking, screaming, crying, sweating, you wish this nightmares would never come

The recurrent nightmares due to traumas that therapeutic treatment could not help when sought

Every day you awake, wondering if today you will deal with the same issues

You sleep enough or so you think but you are exhausted

You go out and seem happy to all but it took all you had to get there

Too much noise, too many people, it’s all so overwhelming, you sometimes feel disoriented

You worry when someone talks to you, will you speak like them or say the wrong thing

You want to apologize for everything even though you did nothing wrong, you are innocent

Saying sorry is easier for you, just the thought of confrontation makes you want to jet

Disconnected somewhat from reality, you truly can’t see the difference

You panic, you want to exit quickly, be back home in your safe place, sleeping again

Anxiety is a miserable feeling, can feel different for all, know that it weighs on their mind

Always remember, you do not know what battles anyone is fighting, be kind!