Lucky Numbers

I have always struggled with anxiety, so this is a poem about how I cope with it.

Lucky Numbers

Everybody has a lucky number, but I have a few

I constantly find myself counting over and over again in my head

Tapping my fingers and toes to every new number

Breathing to the beat of my counting until I'm calmed down

There's a different number for everything

Sometimes I get random spouts of nervous anxiety

In these times, I count to 4 over and over again

A lot of times, I get anxious about how slow life seems to be moving

When time seems to have stopped I count to 60, hoping that it will make the minutes keep passing by

The anxiety also comes when I feel the heaviness of isoloation

Then, I will count to 27

But the worst is when I find myself clinging to a bathroom floor with heavy breathes and splotchy red skin

When I can feel the walls swallowing me

When I can't see from blurred vision of frustration, and anger, and the weight of the world

I count to 7 until my natural color returns and I can breathe again

My counting starts off slow

But by the end of my panic attack I'm going through numbers at lightning speed in my head

I can hardly grasp the numbers quick enough in my head

But I rely on them to get me through my episodes

These are my lucky numbers..what are yours?

Reviews

[Matthew Kult]

Restlessly comforting

Honest read

Matthew

[Carly Nelson]

thank you!

[Matthew Kult]

You are welcome

Matthew