Black Dog Illness

In a moment of life, sweat running down my face  
Bad case of shyness, silencing ones tongue from race  
No sleep at nighttime, just seeing the sun rise  
My senses all failing and my mind freezing over  
A look in the mirror I didn’t recognise
Then it appeared as an hallucination  
I heard her call for me  
I had to slap myself over and over  
This could just be a dream or this might just be heaven  
Then it occurred to me, that I was on strong medication  
The images and voices I heard that day  
Were just from my imagination  
 
Understand the Black Dog Illness  
Not our choice (Not our choice)  
Not our choice  
Heaps of people with the Black Dog Illness  
It doesn’t discriminate (It doesn’t discriminate)  
It might just be lying in wait  
 
Your mind is racing quickly, then goes into a frozen zone  
You’ll have struggles daily, yearly, maybe to your gravestone  
How you control yourself in the moment of the bark  
Some handle it well, some can’t handle it at all  
 
So phone a friend if needed  
Say hello, was the answer what you’d expect?  
They said, “How are you coping and sorry I left you, I shouldn’t disconnect?  
And still those friends don’t call me, any day of the week  
Sit by the phone, morning, afternoon and at night  
Just to hear them speak  
 
Understand the Black Dog Illness  
Not our choice (Not our choice)  
Not our choice  
Society needs to talk to about the Black Dog Illness  
So no one’s alone (So no one’s alone)  
It might be you one day, ok  
 
Moments of frustration  
Retirement not an option  
Some say, "You aren’t really sick, just your minds full of toxin”  
And in the family circle  
They gathered for an intervention  
Some still don’t get what it controls  
And they think it’s my own invention  
 
Last thing I want to address  
Is the way family and friends that you adore  
Just think it’s easy going back to the way I was before  
"Time will heal," said the bible man  
"We are promised our own path  
You can work it out, in your own time  
But you have to believe!"