Dear Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
Dear Obsess
Obsess
Obsess
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.
Are you really sure we need to keep
Checking and washing
And checking
And washing
And checking
And washing?
My hands are cracked
I dread the feeling of water
But I can't wash away
Everything that you make me think
I am tired but too scared to fight back
I’m afraid you’ll attack me
The planes will fall from the sky and take everything that I
Have ever loved
With them.
Dear obsessive Compulsive Disorder you can not sleep
Until I have checked
Every
Single
Pair of shoes next to my bed
The boots, then the sneakers, then the slides
The boots
Then the sneakers
Then the slides
The boots
Sneakers
Slides
How many times do I
Have to re
Repeat
Repeat your rituals
So that you’ll stop crying over irrational situations that haven’t even happened yet?
How many cracks are in my hands
How many thoughts are in my head
How many things will go wrong if I don’t listen?
They say “I’m so OCD”
But they’re actually saying “your disorder is my quirk”
My disorder
My
My
My
My dis
My disorder is not your quirk
It is not straightening the papers on your desk because you don’t like the clutter
It is not cleaning your room when you have a week’s worth of laundry laying around the floor
It is sitting in the corner of the counselor’s office waiting for the bad things to happen because some teacher didn’t take me seriously when I said I need to face west
How can you
Possibly
Understand
When you don’t have to take four napkins if its a Wednesday
or check the boots
And the sneakers
And the slides
And the boots
And the sneakers
And the slides
And
And
And
and
Dear Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
Please leave me alone
I’m so tired and maybe
If I stop checking to see if you’re there then you won’t be
But that’s not a risk I can take