Misunderstood (Mental Illness/Depression)

A number of you have already seen this poem because you saw it on Peeking Beneath, thank you so much! I want to share this poem on here for those who may not check out my second blog. I wrote this poem to try to help people understand what it is like internally for someone who experiences depression or mental illness.

Sometimes it is hard to visualize what that means. Sometimes we think if a person is in a good situation if everything around them appears to be good, and they seem “happy” then depression and other things like anxiety do not really make sense.

I’ve heard before from people sharing their battles with depression, anxiety and mental illness, that society seems to think it is okay to take of the body (physically) when we are hurt. However, the most active part of our body, the brain that controls basically everything, is treated differently. A battle we cannot see on the inside is hard to understand. People feel pain. People have accusing thoughts. Believing they are a burden. Christians, I think, struggle with this too because mental illness “shouldn’t” be a thing with the stigma I just shared.

I’ve known at least six people who have been suicidal. In college, I stayed up one night online with a friend who had attempted. Just because we do not understand. Just because to us maybe we think this person “shouldn’t” be experiencing what they are or it’s just “making a big deal out of nothing”.. to that person it is a big deal. Inside, there is a battle going on. For us to be like Jesus, we need to be loving and understanding.

I hope the poem helps you understand, a little bit, of what the mindset is for someone going through this.

There are many people in this world who cannot speak up about what they are going through because things are misunderstood. Each individual has his or her own story. May we try to understand. May we listen to what people are trying to say.

This poem’s purpose is to show the mindset of someone who is battling internally. Rawness, sensitivity, how words are taken. This poem is not written from my current mindset. I once had a friend admit to me in middle school she thought of suicide when she was only about 10-11 years old. Depression and mental illness do not have age limits. It does not matter what your situation may be either. If it was this simple, celebrities would not die from suicide. Children who live in good homes would not die from suicide. Sometimes there are factors that invite depression and mental illness…but sometimes…there aren’t. 

But…

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