Alex Duffy | + Follow Poet |
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Elephant In the Room

Depression is killing more than ever, yet remains the largest elephant in the room
Mental health has a stigma attached to it
People are scared to get help for their mental illness and wounds
Cause people judge and laugh at it

Bipolar, depression, bulimia, schizophrenia
Just a few topics constantly missed by media
They prefer to post about celebrities and such nonsense
People go missing daily, cause depression takes them hostage

You'll call someone lazy, but depression leaves them with no energy to get out of bed
Anxiety making a person constantly panic and regret things they said
There's a female being called fat, and a dad that's beating his daughter
But you'll call the girl weak and stupid for having an eating disorder

I'm sick of seeing mental health and self harm be dismissed on the internet
How is self-harm any different from smoking a cigarette?
People get addicted, it relieves stress and takes the pain away
Not everyone deals with their pain in the same way

Wearing long sleeves to hide their scars yet you call them an attention seeker
Or "if you really wanted to die you'd cut deeper"
Just some things I've heard in my time
This isn't a poem, this is more than words that rhyme

Don't give up on someone who's struggling with a mental illness
Be patient and understanding, there isn't a quick way to heal it
Imagine being controlled by an illness and blaming yourself for it
If people judged less, maybe people with mental health issues would be more confident to get help for it

I know some of these lines don't go together
And I should have spent more time to make it flow better
But this is deeper than rhyming words, I'm here to share a message
I just hope the world is prepared to accept it

Copyright © Alex Duffy | Year Posted 2017

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Elizabeth Kinch Date: 4/8/2017 12:33:00 AM Bravo Alex. My daughter suffers with anxiety and two members of family suffer badly with psychosis. Too many people do not understand that it is an illness and needs to be treated as such. And why oh why do governments keep cutting funding and closing specialist hospitals....where is the help when needed? A seven my friend Login to Reply Alex Duffy Date: 4/8/2017 4:45:00 AM thank you, yeah I suffer with depression, anxiety and I'm bipolar, so I felt the need to write this for anyone who's suffering with mental illness, it should be treated as such, not sure why it isn't, I stopped trying to understand the government along time ago, sure they're against us not with us. thank you