If ....... Rudyard Kipling had been a depressive
If you can keep your head when your mind
Is losing it and blaming it on you.
If you can trust yourself when depression doubts you
But make allowance for the illness too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting
For appointments that don't materialise,
Or feeling hated, don't give way to hating,
And still see the good and not be paranoid.
If you can dream and not make dreams your nightmares,
If you can think - and not make thoughts your pain,
If you can meet with chaos and disaster
And carry on as if you are quite sane;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've told
Changed by nurses to show your errant ways,
Or let the story of your life unfold,
And so admit you've spoilt so many days.
If you can make one heap of all your tablets
And bin them and not even give a toss,
And lose and start again at the beginning
And never tell the doctor of your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To wait for the bus and make yourself get on,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
But the driver's voice shouting 'Hey - hold on!'
If you can walk with crowds and yet not panic,
Or walk alone - but never feel the fear,
If you can keep your friends when you are manic
Because these friends believe you are so dear;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds thinking what you ought ter,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be sane my daughter!
