Coping

Coping refers to ‘coping mechanisms,’ which is explained well in a Psychology Today article. Coping mechanisms are the ways in which a person deals with the stress they are facing. Not all coping mechanisms are healthy, such as drinking or doing drugs, but there are ways to help yourself during times of great distress.

It’s hard to breathe, but I know this feeling

I knew it was coming, so I crash out of the room with my brain

Already I’ve got the meter of my counting going on in my head

Five

Breathing in through my nose

Four

Breathing out through my mouth

Three

Don’t breathe

Two

Breathing in through my nose

One

Breathing out through mouth

Two

Don’t breathe

Three

Breathing in through my nose

Four

Breathing out through mouth

Five

Don’t breathe

Don’t breathe

Don’t breathe

Don’t breathe

Don’t breathe

I’ve got the meter of counting going on in my head

I should have known this was coming, but I crash when I get out of the room

It’s hard to breathe, but I don’t know this feeling.

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Author’s note: The way this poem is written is meant to be read forwards and backward (by lines, not by words). Ideally, if I’ve done my job, correctly, it should read firstly as a person whose coping mechanisms are not working, and secondly as a person who is learning to use a coping strategy.

#Poetry #mentalhealth #copingmechanisms #mentalhealthawarenessmonth #mentalhealthawareness