Five Minutes explores five minutes of a life in one hundred words. Five minutes is edited by Susanna Baird, with editorial support from managing editor Maria s. picone, newsletter editor kate meen, and founding reader bobbi lerman, plus our rotating team of guest readers, who you can meet in the latest newsletteR. Five Minutes was founded in October 2020, with the Salem (Mass.)-based writing group Carrot Cake Writers supplying the journal’s first pieces. We’d love to read your five. Submit here

Paint Fumes

My eyes flip back and forth between the two firemen, and I can see the questions on their faces as it all begins to sink in. They think it's the paint. They think I'm crazy. There's no gas leak, there's just me, standing in this living room as tunnel vision takes over and memories of a movie about an agoraphobic woman who spirals into psychosis after "witnessing" a murder play through my head. The pieces fall together and I realize I am slipping; I am shattering. I am BPD experiencing symptoms of psychosis. The world drops out from under me.

Mercedes Lubbers doesn't know how to write bios. She's got 2 cats and Borderline Personality Disorder, and takes a stab at writing every now and then. Find Mercedes at cv-portfolio.webnode.com/ and on Instagram @ritzyxritz.

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