Do Not Swallow the Pill by Anonymous

Do not swallow the pill,
This condensed mass of powder
That the world has convinced you
Will “fix” you, your “problematic” self
My darling, you are not broken
You are not lost, you are not crumpled
You are merely a being living
In a society, in a culture
That you were never meant to be forced into
We are all round pegs
Being shoved into square holes
Square holes that we do not belong to,
Square holes we can never comfortably reside in
You are not the problem,
And never have been
Do not forego your personality
Your rare, fragile, and sensitive emotionality
For you are not supposed to be this
Ultra-productive robot with a reduced capacity for feeling,
For feeling is what colors our lives,
Shapes our decisions,
And compels us to be dynamic,
To grow distasteful of stagnation
To yearn for more, to crave change
Please, oh please
Do not listen to them
You need your emotions,
We need our emotions.
As painful, as heart-wrenching as they can be,
Do not let them go.
I beg you.

*****

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Mad in America hosts blogs by a diverse group of writers. These posts are designed to serve as a public forum for a discussion—broadly speaking—of psychiatry and its treatments. The opinions expressed are the writers’ own.

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