Depression is a horrible little creature
that sits in your brains and eats away
all the bits of you that make you feel good.
It ***** out all the colours of your memories
and even turns your most beautiful dreams greyscale.
When you are alone and all about you is dark,
that is where it comes knocking at your door,
inviting itself in and sharing horrible stories with you,
about how you aren’t worth anything in this world,
about everything you love will leave you in time,
about how you don’t know yourself anymore.

You can fight it though, but it will drain you,
you just need to find someone who will listen
and not judge you for being broken and afraid.
I don’t have anyone who does that for me
so I just write, and I keep writing **** down,
to the point where it will annoy people
but I don’t care because this is my outlet,
my therapy, my paltry little coping mechanism.
I’m drowning, but no one can see me struggle.

Depression is feeling like you’ve lost someone
then realizing that you lost yourself,
but there are people out there who can help find it.
Maybe you are one of them, drawn to these words,
suddenly realising you are not the only one,
because that’s why you read poetry, isn’t it?
To connect to the words of another human being,
being able to tell friends it isn’t just you,
there are millions just like you, but you don’t realise,
depression doesn’t allow you to connect.

I don’t write because I can, I write because I need to,
to let things out into the open and hope I help someone,
and when they reply and tell me they feel the same,
whether they realise it or not, they help me, too.
Acknowledgment that my writing is not in vain
is the greatest feeling in the world right now,
and even if you don’t realise, it is probably yours, too.
Why else would you open up so much
if not to have people tell you how good you are at something?
So, this one is for you, my readers, whoever you are,
wherever you call home, whatever you do to cope.
I am not here just as a writer,
I am here also as counsel, I want to help,
to dance amongst your verbs and adjectives,
to let you know, even if you don’t entirely believe it,
that you are not the only one with a cross to bear.