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Mental Illness is a dark and terrible thing.

A Poem

By rebecca hilliardPublished 5 years ago 1 min read
Mental Illness is a dark and terrible thing.
Photo by Josh Riemer on Unsplash

Mental illness is a dark and terrible thing.

It makes it feel like you are being tortured by your own mind.

It makes it feel like you are fighting against yourself to survive.

It makes it feel like there is something dark & dangerous inside you.

It’s like having a mind that has turned dark and deadly.

I imagine it like a black infection that is spreading through my mind.

Turning my pink healthy brain into something dark and malicious.

I want it out of my head.

I want it out of my mind.

Other diseases get medicine and treatment with no questions asked.

But mental illness is surrounded by stigma.

People think it’s fake or made up and they don’t understand the severity of it.

Treatment is expensive and hard to get.

Families and friends give the label of ‘crazy’ ‘eccentric’ ‘weird’ ‘unsafe’.

But that is not what we are.

We are surviving a monster in our mind.

We are surviving thoughts that want us to hurt ourselves.

Surviving thoughts that torture us.

We are not weak or crazy.

No, we are the strongest people alive.

Battling this invisible illness every moment of our lives.

Enduring the stigma and judgements from society.

A ‘regular’ person would not be able to survive this.

But here we all are.

Surviving.

And it is no small feat.

Read more of my poems here 😊

Follow me on Instagram @inthistogethernow_

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About the Creator

rebecca hilliard

I am a sexual abuse survivor and use poetry to convey the healing process. I'm also in recovery for mental illness and I use my writing to give hope and encouragement to others. ❤

Author of "A World Locked Away"

Follow me @inthistogethernow_

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