When Boredom becomes a Disease

The boy was only nine, but he had already begun losing pieces of himself.

He forgot why he walked into rooms, stared blankly at homework he had read three times, and grew irritated within minutes of silence. Even meals ended with one hand holding a phone and the other pushing food around a plate gone cold.

His parents thought exhaustion was the problem. 

Bills, disappointments, old wounds, and endless responsibilities had consumed so much of them that noticing the slow disappearance of their son required a kind of attention they no longer had left to give.

Every night, they watched parenting reels about emotional connection, screen balance, and mindful childhoods before forwarding them to relatives with folded hands emojis. 

Meanwhile, their child sat in the next room, unable to focus, unable to rest, and increasingly unable to exist without noise flickering into his eyes every few seconds.

No one realized that a boy who could not tolerate boredom anymore was quietly becoming a boy who could no longer tolerate his own mind. 💔