I am Not a Schizophrenic

I Am Not a Schizophrenic

Slam Poem

By: Leif Gregersen

Jan. 6, 2019

Some people call me schizophrenic

But the fact is I’m not simply some disease

I’m a kid who has seen more crap in 14 years

Than most people even can believe

Some people think they understand my problem

Truth is I just got off the wrong stop

On the bus route to growing up and freedom

I met a nasty dude who won’t let up

I won’t speak too much of my new buddy

He got me started smoking heavy weed

Even when my mom told me that I shouldn’t

I figured there was no reason to believe

The dude I met was three different voices

They talked me into doing all these things

Like smoking heaps of pot and drinking

It seemed to be the only way to make him leave

The first time my parents saw me bring my friend home

When I was high and they were watching TV

They figured they would do the right thing

But the last thing they did was talk to me

I ended up being locked inside a psych ward

And something I swore that I will never tell

Was when I told my doctor I liked dope smoking

He told me he smoked the stuff as well

This hospital was a stupid place to send an adolescent

They thought it could help me fix my head and rest

But when they let me out with a bag of medication

Back at school I never had presence of mind to pass a test

Those so-called experts who I saw there

Never figured they should talk to me

But all too easily they told my parents

How this illness would never let me be

I was put on so many pills I was a zombie

Drooling, and glassy-eyed as one can be

Add that to a month inside the psych ward

All my classmates laughed and picked on me

As time went by I seemed to get a little better

Then new voices told me I no longer needed meds

So I took my pills and flushed them down the toilet

And in just hours I wished that I were dead

Some people call me schizophrenic

Person with schizophrenia is what you should call me

Take all your stigma now and shove it

I’m a human being, not some disease

END