Poetry vs. Depression
Flora Lister is from Eastsound, Washington and she struggles with anxiety and depression. She wrote this for us when she was 18.
I first began writing poetry about my mental health as a way to get negative thoughts and memories out of my head and onto paper. I would have never thought of sharing them until my therapist showed me the website Stigma Fighters, in hopes that I would be able to connect with other teenagers who were in situations similar to mine. I connected heavily with some of the submissions from other writers on the website, and felt that teenagers struggling with mental health issues might relate to my poetry just as I had related to other works on the site. Mental illness is often ten times harder to cope with because of the large stigma around it. I believe it is beneficial to share your own experiences and struggles in this field not only to destroy or “fight” the stigma, but also to help yourself to connect with others and become a part of something extremely influential.
One of the first poems I decided to publish on Stigma Fighters was Fall into the Sea. I think this poem accurately describes my struggle with depression and anxiety and the numb feeling many people with the illness attribute to depression. While this poem uses drowning as a metaphor for suicide, it also represents the struggle of living with mental illness day-to-day. It also explores the common act of hiding your illness from society instead of reaching out to others for help. While I was not always able to talk openly about my mental illness, after the suicide of my father, I learned first-hand how important it is to let people know how you are feeling.
Fall into the Sea
By Flora Lister
And sometimes all I want
Is to fall into the sea
And sometimes others’ happiness is a taunt
And other times I need it to distract me
Always I want to drive for miles on end
But never will it suffice
For my same problems are around the bend
And only in my dreams is there paradise
And soon I fall into the ground
And soon she takes me away
And in this life I am drowned
And in this life I am astray
For I am lonely in a crowd
For I am lonely all alone
To the outside I must be proud
For they cannot see the faltering bone
At times I can forget
At times I can feel free
But then my limbs are wet
And I fall into the sea
Cover photo by Coventry Automatik. Check out our Instagram to see more pictures.
anxiety, depression, poetry, poem, mental health, stigma fighters
