em(pathetic)

In a culture fixated on happiness,

physical health and nutritious foods are advertised as a vaccine to mental illness, as if we can subside our anxieties with vitamins or downward dog our way out of depression.

We make judgments about the toxicity of drugs, without ever understanding the toxicity of the illness.

Our accessories are smeared with ingredients to happiness,

sweat

laugh

breathe

as if it truly is that simple. As if our basic human functions should prevent any mental ailment.

We say we support those with mental illness,

as we cower from men who sit on the side of the road, muttering to themselves,

as we scowl at those who have “allowed” themselves to become slaves to a drug,

as we roll our eyes at those who look to us to listen, shutting them up with our intuitions.

As if we know what will make things better because it’s written on our freaking lunch bags, when really, we don’t even know the problem.

So maybe today,

instead of talking,

we listen.