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…