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Anxiety: The Monster on My Land

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Welcome to the jarring world of anxiety,

The world of fear, what ifs and instability

Where no moment is ever yours to hold

“You can’t do it” is what you’re told.

Anxiety is the monster in my brain

It fights for sovereignty over my terrain

Day after day, night after night

It won’t give up without a fight.

A fight that has cost me dear,

Because anxiety won’t let anyone near

The walls it has built for me are too high

To get to me, well, why would you even try?

A shape shifter this monster is

Sometimes a thick heavy mist is what it fits

My mind and my heart in its fold

No moment, no memory is free from its hold.

Sometimes, strong black ropes it wraps around me

Tightly binding me so I can never be free,

“Stay with me,” it gently says

I obey, and watch my dreams waste away.

Anxiety is possessive, you see,

It wants me and only me

It has for me a world created

A world where I am always hated. 

It weaves around me a spell,

A world where no one wishes me well

Where I am no more than a fleeting thought

As relevant as an ugly moth.

Sometimes, anxiety becomes me.

It tells me, “This is who you will always be.”

It whispers that it will never leave

This is a lie I almost always believe.

It tells me, “I am you, you are me.

That’s all the world can see.

Broken, flawed and alone you are,

Stop the fight, give up the war.”

But anxiety, I won’t let you win,

Even when you wear me thin.

Bruised, broken and alone I will still stand,

Fight to protect my own land. 

Image via Thinkstock.

Originally published: October 10, 2016
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