Echoes Beneath My Skin

I am Alex. I've walked through life carrying storms invisible to most, storms made of panic attacks, blackouts, depression, and anxiety that grips my every breath. This is not a story of easy victories. This is a raw confession of living inside a mind that feels everything too deeply, that reacts too strongly, that survives when the body wants to collapse. From the libraries where the world felt upside down, to churches that became my sanctuary, to streets where every step felt like walking through quicksand, I've lived on the edge of my own control. I've learned how substances amplify my pain, how empaths bear wounds unseen, and how blackouts are a silent scream of survival. This poem is my voice, my heart exposed, a bone-deep confession of what it is to survive a body and mind that do not always follow the rules.