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Phoenix-Rising Jul 2020
i remember
the first time i thought
taking medication was a bad thing
a thing
i would be better off not doing

i remember
wondering if it would make me a different person because
if it’s changing my brain, and i believe my brain is what makes me me, isn’t it changing me

i remember
taking it anyway, because it was supposed to help, and it did . . . sometimes
but it kind of made me worse,
the first one did anyway, but that’s another story

i remember
taking the second kind and knowing
that this was helping
it was making me feel better,
but then

i remember
my cousin telling me he didn’t need medication, that it wouldn’t help him
plus,
he was strong enough without it anyway

i remember thinking
“doesn’t that make me weak”
and i didn’t want to be weak
so i stopped taking
my medication

i remember
my cousin telling me i wasn’t weak either way
that i should take the meds if i needed them
but he also said “throwing meds at a problem isn’t always the solution”

so i remember
deciding it wasn’t the solution i wanted
i’d find a different one
i would be fine on my own
so now . . .

i remember
when I was taking medication
the lows weren’t quite so low
but
the highs weren’t quite so high either
This is not me advocating for anyone else to stop taking any of their prescribed medication.
Phoenix-Rising Jul 2020
i remember
when i first went to the doctors for help
my dad took me
because my therapist had suggested I look into medication

i remember
the doctor telling me what
“the good thing about depression and anxiety is”
and i knew this man hadn’t dealt with them personally

i still remember that
because I thought it was funny that
he had the audacity to tell me
“there is something good about you always being so **** stressed and sad”

i remember
the doctor left, halfway through finding the right meds
he went to another town, another hospital, other people because why not

i remember
thinking i guess i’m not important enough
for even the doctor to stay and help
and i get that it’s not personal, but
it still feels a little bit personal
Heavy Hearted Jul 2020
In the washroom
my reflection
and I,
Challenge one another-

A coagulated sweat,
A Combat baby's brain,
A moon that doesn't set-
Ascending constant strain...
Oh Anxiety, Paranoia,
Obsession and Depression,
Still perhaps, a poem just might
set free this true confession:
Confusion and  Delusion
The mirror's blunt conclusion
Pristiq, and then Welbutirn,
Art's  inclusive-type solution.

another one's challenge;
my Reflection , and I
In the Washroom.
"Blood I want it
giving up the fight
blood I want it-
Lay me down tonight"
-M.Myers
Holly Black Jun 2020
Cotton seeds are carried past my window,
winds drifting them like a December snow.
The day has barely started
and I'm already fed up with reality.

Messages swirl in my conciousness,
stirred by some insidious witch
getting pleasure from my confusion
as the worries contradict,
dragging me in their favored direction
without checking to make sure I can stretch
that many ways at once.

Sighing, I water the plant
I've kept alive on my sill
for an impressive amount of time.
Half of it's flowers are withering,
but it's likely due to age
over my neglectful care.

The dogs need feeding,
the dishes must be done,
I'm late on submitting my notes for last week.
The living takes priority;
their simple joys make life more bearable.

Everything else is shoved aside.
I'll get it done eventually;
even if I promised myself I'd be more productive
starting this week.

The chemically induced exhaustion
pulls me earthword,
making my limbs feel heavy
and my head float away.
But at least I don't hurt as much.
Physically, at least.

Pushing myself through breakfast,
I ponder the list of excuses I could use to skip work
before shoving them all away.
Life is siphoning my bank account away
far too fast;
do i really want to help it along?

Comb my hair, change my clothes,
remember I need to add deodorant
to my shopping list.
Shove my usual supplies
into pockets of ill fitting jeans
and mentally prepare myself
to exit the small comfort
offered by a home that isn't mine.

It's time to face the world.
Reality has been kicking my **** lately. I imagine a depressing amount of you can relate
Shin Jun 2020
Slowly resurrect the fossilized eyes.
Work in the cold, grey, concrete asylum.
We pass in pairs of twenty and seven.
Stroke the blood, dust the ash, spark up the muse.
The rot runs to the core, no man remains.

Scar tissue and cough syrup numb the brain.
A silken, rope-filled snake bruises the pipe.
Midnight arrives. Mama, can you hear the moon?
The stars pass through, purifying the gloom.
Embrace the tumult, greet the curtain call.

The dust mites settle, the clouds become grey.
We spread our wings, cry out, and fade away.
Empire Jun 2020
I don’t want to be numb anymore
I don’t want to cry only when I think about how empty I am inside
I don’t want my wrists to burn
Begging for a cut to make me feel again
I want to care truly and deeply again
I want to feel my life
I want to feel alive

However

The medication keeps me sane
It keeps me able to eat
More than a few tortillas a day
I don’t dissociate and panic
Because my homework is stressful
I can make it through my days
Because I take that pill
The lowest dosage I could convince my doctor to offer
It’s keeping me alive

I think
Empire May 2020
tw suicidal thoughts



Something about these pills...
It just rubs me the wrong way...
Something eerie about them
Their quantities
Their psychoactive properties

I just don’t want them in my head
Or I want them all at once
High doses
Overdoses
Or none at all

And why
Why the ****
Do I get excited
A sick hit of adrenaline
Thinking about swallowing them all
And ending it now

What’s wrong with me
Nothing’s wrong
Everything’s wrong
I’m fine
I’m broken
I’m sick
I’m losing my **** mind

And somehow...
Somehow the pills keep me a little bit sane
The Unsung Song May 2020
Clear like muddy water,
fluid, but opaque,
is my mind.
With each capsule that I swallow,
I get more and more,
foggy.

Prescriptions as if I need them.
Needing them as though I'm broken.
Maybe I am,
broken.
Maybe I am,
shattered.

Shattered as glass cracks.
In other words,
it doesn't.
Instead, it breaks into countless pieces,
never to be fixed again.

Oh, I'd give anything to be fixed again.
I'd give anything,
to feel clear again.
While I don't take medication for mental health, I do feel foggy and confused by my feelings a lot of the time.
Grey Mar 2020
I lie awake in my bed
all these uncontained thoughts
running around in my head.
Color and light,
ideas that are glaring and bright
seep into my head during the long nights.
But I'm restless, dark thoughts
pulling me down
and making me breathless.
So I take a sleeping pill,
wait for it to lift the weight
of the desperate dreams they ****.
But along with it,
the rainbow dims and flickers,
becoming a monochrome
that reminds me all to much
of the world we call home.
1/20/20
Going through my drafts.
I'm never sure how to end my poems, so I'm never really satisfied with them.
Ceyhun Mahi Mar 2020
O soul of mine, O sufferer of sadness,
    Leave all the pills, believe in yourself,
I'm sure you can withstand the drowning madness,
    Leave them for a day on the wooden shelf.
Be strong; you are a Poet after all,
    A sorcerer of words who's rarely seen,
Even then, glorious will be your fall,
    For you'll achieve a state who's pure and clean.
No medication anymore, no more!
    Step out the door, behold chaotic moves.
What has the world today for you in store?
    You do enjoy the rush, excitement proves.
It's so easy to say these words, but still
I can't go on a day without a pill.
I find that I have handled the volta perfectly in this sonnet.
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