Reb Shlomo said that sometimes when you go into the emergency room,
you sit down and are patient to be seen. But when you have a really
serious medical problem that can’t wait, you go right past the door and
scream, “emergency, it’s an emergency.” Selichos is when a person
cries to Hashem and says, “I’m an emergency.”

Selichos is when I realize that I can’t wait to be close to You again!
I can’t wait to correct my ways, I need You to help me let myself be
me again, right now. Please!  My whole life is an emergency.  Praying to
G-d on Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur is the medicine.