Warrior Worrier—A Spoken Word Poem About Depression & Anxiety

I am actually super touched that this helped some of you guys, thank you for all your kind words. Words: The battle begins when you open your eyes And continues until you close them at night Sometimes not even then does it end because these feelings carry on into your dreaming Only for you to wake up and to begin again Your enemy is yourself And also, not yourself, see Anxiety’s hard to explain Depression’s more than just one bad day And men and mental illness have never really understood each anyway so here’s the gist: Your enemy is an invisible force you can only really fight through metaphors You’re in a sword fight With your own foresight Every victory hidden from public eye Every wound you take yields an invisible cry It’s a beast you can’t kill but it’s one you can fight And maybe with some words you can soften the bite, cause Depression is a lion you’ve been locked in a cage with, and somebody threw away the key You’re in a roman coliseum and there’s nowhere to flee The whole world is watching but nobody’s helping And you’re a fighter, it’s true, but now you worry Cause you’re a worrier But you’re a warrior And you worry But you fight So here’s my advice: punch the lion in the mouth Normally you don’t condone violence, but for depression you make an exception A quick right hook should teach it a lesson, and if it doesn’t? Let it come back for seconds, cause you are champion The fact that you’re still standing, still here, still alive, proves that you have the drive and the words to survive With anxiety, life’s a racehorse you never wanted to ride And as you hang on for dear life you here something inside say “let go“ But you’re better than suicide Mind addled, every social encounter an uphill battle Heart beats so fast it’s hard to handle Life bucks and tries to throw you off the saddle But you grit your teeth and straddle Hold on tight, not cause it’s wrong or right But cause deep down in your scarred heart there’s a warrior inside You’ve been a fighter since birth, and never believed in your own worth You’ve got a punch that can shake the Earth I won’t say you’ve won but you’ve survived the day, you’ve beat back depression in your very own way You’ve cut a path through the needless pain and sorrow Get some rest; you’ve earned it. Then do the same thing tomorrow.