Stimming is common among people who are neurodivergent, but when my anxiety was at its worst my stimming took a harmful turn, I began peeling skin on my lips to the point where I bleed, biting the skin around my nails and pinching my arm. This poem is about the people who loved me and were there for me, who helped me stop the harmful stimming even if I hurt them in the process.
Leave the World on Me
bite my tongue
until it bleeds
dig into my skin
like the wet dirt of the earth
let your pain out
in bruises and marks
weathered on my skin
leave the whole world on me
but don’t treat me like a tool
i am not the knife
you can use
to hurt yourself
just cut into me
when the demons in your head
speak so loud
you want to hurt yourself
to silence them
turn to me
i’ll kiss every mark
on your skin
and let you carve into mine
until you don’t hear them again
