How Anxiety Affects the Body: A Poem

Photo by Nick Schumacher

Body of anxiety

Let’s take it from the top

The head, the throbbing head

Filled with wires,

Snapping and flailing

Chancing connection

Through misfiring neurons

That reach the neck

Taut with unnoticed tension

Glued to the head —

And to the back

In one immovable block

Arms, the floating arms

Detached at times

Or tethered too tight

In their fight

To escape the body

But their fidgets belie

Their purpose —

to squeeze, to hold, to grab

on to something firm

A counterweight, a countermeasure

From steadier times

Days when the the legs moved

In much the same way

And covered distances

Effortless, breathless distances

Still, to this day they move

Trudging forward

One by one, the same way

Whether trouncing ruins

of old dreams

or delicate shards

of future remnants

Which are pointy objects

That pierce the feet

and prick the skin

Sending shockwaves

back to the head

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Jordan Brown is the founder of Nerve 10, the website he created. It's named after the "connects the brain to body structures as varied and important as the heart, the lungs, the intestines, and the colon." Read more here.