Therapeutic Limericks about Mental Health

Mental illness and poetry, they go together like child abuse and super villains. Maybe that’s why my parents tried to talk me out of pursuing the life of a poetaster. In any case, I knew the job was dangerous when I took it. And though the career has been less than illustrious, I can thank my stars that I haven’t turned out to be the next Lex Luthor or a modern day Sylvia Plath.

In order to cope, and to help understand the incomprehensible, I’ve spent a considerable amount of time among the mentally ill. I’ve also written an inordinate number of limericks about mental illness. That includes everything from garden variety depression to psychoanalysis. I’ve even reconsidered the somewhat lost art of phrenology.

     Cross Examination
     Like a figure from Kafka we go up on Trial
     Sentenced to question our selves for a while
               Prepare your defense
               At another’s expense
     And spend all your days in a state of denial

     Blues for Lacan
     The post-Freudian school has got nothin’ on me
     And still they extract an exorbitant fee
               But sometimes I think
               I’m in need of a shrink
     Perhaps we can blame existential ennui

     Post Modern Angst
     Psychoanalysis flattens your purse
     But inner impoverishment does something worse
               Conform to conventions
               Ignore the big questions
     As the road to enlightenment runs in reverse

     Under Observation
     There’s a thoughtful young maverick with multiple heads
     Arrested one day by a couple of feds
               In a stolen a Mercedes
               He mowed down three ladies
     The time he got nervous and went off his meds

     Deep in the Fog
     One day’s a bullseye, the next one’s a miss
     The capstone of that or the bottom of this
               But I can’t see tomorrow
               Beyond the grey sorrow
     While leaning in over the gaping abyss

     Head Games
     On the field of phrenology I’ve often opined
     Scratching my dome like a thick melon rind
               I’ve heard all the lectures
               On cranial textures
     The shape of your skull tells me what’s on your mind

     The Labyrinth
     There’s an obstacle course taking place in my brain
     With mirrors and mazes that drive me insane
               I long to abscond
               To the greater beyond
     And escape from this prison they call the mundane

     Passing Fancies
     Psychic vicissitudes working cross purposes
     One thought dissolves and another one surfaces
               Feelings are fleeting
               So watch as you’re greeting
     The many sensations that consciousness furnishes

     Manic Panic
     From the absolute ebb to the uppermost pinnacle
     With mood swings galore my condition is clinical
               A moment’s elation
               To hopeless negation
     The state of neurosis has rendered me cynical

     Exceeding Ambivalence
     Beyond the ambivalent naughty or nice
     Pursuing the virtue and chasing the vice
               Resist the dichotomy
               Slicing the lot of me
     Live every day like it’s worth living twice

     The Support Group
     I’m new to the group, it’s my very first session
     My friends call me Fred and I have a confession
               I squander my time
               As I ponder and rhyme
     And I’m desperate to cure this unhealthy obsession

More poetry concerning psychiatry

Trying to wrap my head around the modern day epidemic of mental illness has not been easy. I’ve seen too many victims and too many crises to simply turn a blind eye. And while trying to avoid the common mistakes of projection and transference, I’ve undergone a good deal of contemplation. Sometimes I thumb through the DSM to calm my nerves. But more often, I just write. 

     

DIAGNOSTIC MANUSCRIPT

A mental disorder could mean many things
From the forms of dementia that ageyness brings
To a wide range of symptoms affecting your mind
And the DSM says that they’re all well-defined
But the lines can’t be drawn with such clinical ease
Till the seventies gays had a serious disease

Now manic depression includes many cases
Where mood swings occur on a regular basis
And major depression can strike even worse
So some women like to keep pills in their purse
The SSRIs can work wonders for some
While others prefer to use whiskey or rum
But dangers are common with self-medication
So I endorse mindfulness: that’s meditation

If Prozac provides you with less than a cure
The Benzos (for short) are what many prefer
As they often have sedative, calming effects
And not just the ones that the patient expects
It’s a remedy helpful for those feeling blue
With frequent relief for anxiety too

Obsessive compulsives make orderly plans
And some of them like to keep washing their hands
But others they can’t even make it outside
They’re overly nervous with so much to hide
The spectrum can vary from minor neurosis
To the absolute zenith of chronic psychosis

But neurodegenerative cases are tough
In which mood lifting treatments are just not enough
Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, tragic indeed
The fragmented mind of a person in need
A whole ‘nother class of a mental disorder
While some of us straddle a tenuous border
Uncertain if treatment is really so proper
‘Cuz if Psyche’s insistent then why try and stop her?

Further Reading

If you liked these limericks about mental illness, you’ll be sure to enjoy:

• Limericks about Challenges and Obstacles
• Limericks about Darkness and Sorrow
• Poetry about Anatomy and Physiology
• What is a limerick?