Thoughts on Therapy

Isn't it funny how,
We send people with mental problems to therapy so quickly?
First revelations of depression and anxiety,
Equate to, "Maybe you should seek help."

Have you ever thought that the pains are meant to be felt?
Perhaps the mind wasn't meant to be explored?
There are reasons why it's encased in bone,
More than any other organ. 
Yet, we explored it.

Now, we send our "mentally ill" to be fixed,
With the flick of a wrist. 
Solutions usually involving medications
to provide mental vacations,
Lacks of sensations,
But that's okay. 
Because it dulls the mentally ill to normalcy.

This is just my perspective, though. 
I will never go. 
No one is fully aware of the trauma compiled in my head,
How it feels to revisit certain parts each day, 
Even as I lay at peace in bed.

I wish to be happy,
Even go a week without those memories.
But, I don't wish for that artificial peace. 
My mind was created to be lacking,
No pill shall be its backing. 
No doctor will aid me. 
Because, what else can they tell me that I haven't thought or heard?

Tell me to forgive my parents for their varieties of abuse?
Tell me to forget about my exes that used and hurt me?
Forgive the others who came along and scarred me in different ways?

Why?
This is my life story.
I'm not throwing away pages. 
I'm not going to act like these things haven't caused my mind to age. 
I'm not going to make perfect peace
with the terrorists of my mind
Because I'm viewed as mentally ill.

These are my imperfections. 
You will view me as a veteran of life
Or view me as a disappointment,
A loss of potential,
A cancer patient. 
Your choice. 
But yours is not the voice
That has carried me through my darkest nights.

Author's Note

Day 13 of my poetry prompts. Topic: Mental Trauma. Commentating on mental illness with less focus on me. Let's see how you guys like it.

Reviews

[I Am Svetlana]

I admire your perspective in this piece--doctors are so quick to write a medication for any type of problem...even mental, especially mentally ill people. I never liked the thought of going to therapy until a few years ago, when I actually caved and began going to sessions. I've been seeing my therapist now for almost 5 years and I couldn't imagine where I'd be if it wasn't for her...the sessions are nice because it's good to just talk to someone...even when you feel like you have no one else.

[Tessa Melendez]

Everyone has their perspective on therapy and what it does/doesn't do. When my sister and I came to stay with our aunt, she pushed the idea of each of us going to therapy, if not sometime around then, we'd go in the future because of what my parents did to us as kids. We weren't put through gut-wrenching treatment as kids, but we were abused and both of us came out having depression, anxiety, and either were or still are suicidal. My sister went to therapy since she got the brunt of the bs but, neither therapist she was assigned did anything much for her that made her want to stay with it. I never went because I don't see it as much different from opening up to a friend or even a stranger. I've done both. To be honest, just thinking about the potential that I could be diagnosed with something that would cause them to prescribe me medications makes me think that I'd clam up when I'm at a session.

[I Am Svetlana]

I completely understand--it's okay to not be up for actually going to a session, but it's the thought that counts I believe. I didn't start going to therapy until 4 years ago after being in a mentally/sexually abusive relationship and I felt as if everything was wrong in my life. It's more difficult now cause we have to do sessions over a computer screen, but I miss just talking to someone in person...but I guess for me, therapy just gave me someone to talk to besides making me feel as if I bother anyone else around me with my thoughts or problems.