This Man's Poem About Losing Love To OCD Will Make You Feel ALL The Feels
Heartbreak in two minutes and fifty-two seconds.
Poet Neil Hilborn was at the 2013 Rustbelt Regional Poetry Slam when he gave this heartbreaking performance. Titled "OCD," the love poem chronicles Hilborn finding (and losing) love, all because of his Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.
The performance is as powerful as it is heartfelt, and if you don't shed at least one tear, we can't help you.
So, watch the video, feel all the feels, and cry it out.
See, told you so. You're sobbing, aren't you? I certainly am.
The power of love, the ability it has to move and change us, is truly astounding. Love can build us up, and ruin us completely. It can heal and destroy.
Neil Hilborn's journey through the many stages of love is just one example of how we can be completely transformed by the love of another person.
You can actually feel his heartbreak and even get a glimpse as to what living with OCD feels like thanks to his powerful words and performance, from his joy to meeting someone who not only accepts his mental illness but also appreciates it to the moment the same thing she loved became overwhelming.
To top it all off, he reveals how his OCD makes it so that he obsesses over the memory of her. Breakups are hard enough as is — imagine literally never being able to stop thinking about the one who left.
As someone who deals with OCD on a daily basis, Hilborn's performance struck a particular chord with me. But you don't just have to be someone who carries the burden of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder to relate to this moving piece.
Haven't we all been lifted up and struck down by love at one time or another? Of course we have.
So if you take away anything from Hilborn's performance, let it be empathy. Not empathy for someone with a disorder, but rather empathy for the ones you love. Because you can hurt them just as easily as they can hurt you.