Tuesday 26 February 2013

Mirror vs. me

Mirrors are my enemy. I hate all mirrors and anything that can hold my reflection in it.  If by accident I get a glimpse of my reflection, it sends a chill down my spine.  I don’t recognise the person who stares back at me, it’s not me. It’s not me anymore; it hasn’t been me for years. Maybe even ten years when depression got a hold of me, paving the way for more illnesses in years to come.

My eyes don’t sparkle anymore since M.E and depression sucked the life out of them.  They now look lifeless and empty. I have a permanent big dark circle round each eye, making me resemble a washed out panda,  now grey and white not black and white.

The skin that holds my face together is dull, pale and even translucent. My freckles now look like abandoned old smudges when painters are trying to get the right colour brown for a painting. My lips sport a constant frown and my frown is hardly ever turned upside down.

My lips are littered with bite marks,  a sign of my anxiety. I can gnaw away on my lips for minutes without realising it. I like it when my lips are sore, the tingling makes me feel alive inside, when I spend most of the time feeling like I’m part of the walking dead.

My face is no longer slender and long, not since I became ill with M.E and depression. Medication I take daily causes weight gain. Not taking them is not an option, so I can never win. My youthful face is now round, swollen and puffy. I feel like it has doubled in size like a football. 

I don’t like the new me, I look like a complete stranger, a tortured, lonely creature. Like someone has replaced me with a shadow of my former self. To be honest, I didn’t like the old me, but at least it was familiar, a reflection I recognised. I don’t recognise me now, and I don’t think I ever will. It’s just a horrible reminder of my life before illnesses took over my mind and body. It’s always someone else staring back at me in the mirror.

So mirrors are not my friends, they are my enemies and I doubt this will change.

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