Chemical Imbalance

July 29th 2023 TW: addiction

We creep slowly towards death

with every inhale of chemicals

built to enjoy or suppress

feelings and thoughts that

we cannot express; without

it, we are lost and broken.

It starts in the evenings,

then joins us in our beds

and before long, they can

smell it upon our breath

and we adopt this life

because the risk and the freedom

feels better than facing

our demons. We tread in

this water, swirling around us,

and we drown, breathless,

because what began as

suppression, arose to addiction

and we can no longer

save ourselves. They

call us junkies and potheads

and demand that we

‘clean up our lives’

but they’ll never understand

that addiction is far more complex

and if we could stop it, we would.

See, even I can attest,

that the root of our problems

is not in our heads

but rather a world that refuses

to understand what makes us

different, special and unique.

But, I digress. If a world

forces its inhabitant to drown

what they feel..

why do we question

when a ‘good girl’

becomes an addict?