With good mental health I have….
‘To admit defeat,’ says the demon of depression,
‘I lived inside your body for so long,
You’d even forgotten that there was a real YOU underneath it all,
As long as you believed the lie I told, you thought YOU were a failure,
You were convinced YOU would never be good enough,
You felt YOU could never get out of the deep pit you were in’
And, you kept feeding me with more and more YOURSELF
Even your small setbacks seemed to be replayed inside your head a million times,
Till they felt like the biggest catastrophes,
You lost confidence in YOURSELF,
I made you believe that – that’s my job
The demon who feeds on human happiness.
You were wearing my glasses…
The kind that only let you see the rain and not the rainbow through it….
And, then, one day YOU made a choice to change
YOU started to attend therapy sessions,
Started to look for a place to anchor
Your faith, your long imprisoned talents,
I knew then that I was fighting a losing battle….
To my ‘You are not good enough’
YOU soon learnt the truth
YOU are good enough-
Good enough to be called
A caring friend, a helpful neighbour
A good human being….
The day you turned around and told me
There would be the rain…
But the important thing was to focus on the rainbow,
You had discovered the truth-
YOU had been put on earth for a purpose
YOU looked upward to renew your faith
YOU looked sideward to connect with old friends
YOU looked outward for a new hobby, a new job
YOU looked downward to encourage someone still in the depths of despair
YOU looked inward to find the real YOU.
I knew then you were on your road to recovery-
to having good mental health…
And, I knew that I couldn’t feed off you anymore…