Poetry can heal and so can you

In Asia, as well as other third and even first-world societies, mental illness is still viewed as something you should "snap out of" and sweep under the carpet. It doesn't have to be this way.

Photo by Stormseeker on Unsplash

When I was in my early twenties, a favourite Asian singer/actor of mine called Leslie Cheung took his life. I had watched many of Cheung’s movies in my early to mid-teens and was shocked and saddened at his untimely demise.

Fourteen years later, the equally talented musician Chris Cornell committed suicide. Both Cheung and Cornell had struggled with depression, something I have been familiar with during the past twenty years or so of my life.

Untreated mental illness takes lives. So why then do so many people keep denying the existence of depression and other mental health conditions? Why do we keep telling loved ones and even strangers to “snap out of it” and hide their illness like some dirty stain that doesn’t wash off?

I read somewhere once that the brain is an organ too; one that needs care and treatment like your heart, liver or lungs. That statement forever changed my perspective on mental illness. Self-criticism and stigma flew out of the window for good. It made me realise that my own self-regard is all that matters.

Feeling the extreme suffering that Cheung and Cornell must’ve endured, I wrote the following poem inspired by an Audioslave song:

Even when you’ve paid enough
Been pulled apart
Or held up
Every single memory of
The good or bad, faces of love
Don’t lose any sleep tonight
I’m sure everything will end up alright
You may win or lose
But to be yourself is all that you can do.

Be Yourself, by Audioslave

In Response To ‘Be Yourself’

They dressed you in despair
When they should have
Tied hope to your waist—
Anchoring you to Earth
Where you could’ve stayed.

Instead they fed you
Comforting lies—
Which choked you slowly
You gasped for air
But no one came to help.

You fell apart
Enough was never enough—
Alright a mere illusion
Derailing your only salvation.

The faces you loved
Unhinged you from
Your shared suffering—
It was either win or lose
A battle not of your own making.

Your music said it all
When we couldn’t find the words—
The truth hid itself
In a shroud of searing pain
And you slipped through the cracks.

To end this post, I ask only that you picture the face of someone you love who has struggled or is still struggling with mental illness. And send the person healing vibes from deep within your heart.

Love, light and healing vibes,
Sharmila