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35 Quotes To Help You Understand Your Depression

Depression is more than sadness. It is a quiet devastation.
Sade Andria Zabala
September 17, 2016
“Humor has the same formal structure as depression, but it is an anti-depressant that works by the ego finding itself ridiculous.”
— Simon Critchley, Infinitely Demanding: Ethics of Commitment, Politics of Resistance (Radical Thinkers)
Tagged: comedy, humor, Jokes, Depression
“Somehow, over the past few decades it's become conventional wisdom that we should put our faith in our feelings. That is, if we feel something—especially if we feel it intensely—then it deserves to be seen as valid, or truthful. The adage "trust your feelings" has by now become almost axiomatic. But ultimately, how logical—or, how safe—is it to conclude that if we feel something strongly, we should both believe it and permit it to control our behavior? 

The very essence of cognitive-behavioral therapy (and rational emotive behavior therapy as well) is derived from the theory that how we think determines how we feel. But as this theory itself might ask, if our thoughts are exaggerated, distorted—or, for that matter, downright delusional—how can we possibly place our faith in any feelings that stem from such irrational thoughts?”
— Leon Seltzer, Trust Your Feelings? . . . Maybe Not
Tagged: Philosophy, Psychology
“The director in the movie didn't want to suggest that people who are living in a state with controlled mental illness, that they should stop taking their medicine. It would be dangerous to suggest this. So it doesn't correspond to me accurately.”
— John Nash, Transcript from an interview with Dr. John Nash at the 1st Meeting of Laureates in Economic Sciences in Lindau, Germany, September 1-4, 2004
Tagged: Medicine, Moves and Real Life, Mental Illness
“Loneliness does not come from being alone, but from being unable to communicate the things that seem important.”
— Carl Gustav Jung, Memories, Dreams and Reflections
Tagged: Loneliness, Psychology, Communication, Relationships
“The process of dissociation is an elegant mechanism built into the human psychological system as a form of escape from (sometimes literally) going crazy. The problem with checking out so thoroughly is that it can leave us feeling dead inside, with little or no ability to feel our feelings in our bodies. The process of repair demands a re-association with the body, a commitment to dive into the body and feel today what we couldn’t feel yesterday because it was too dangerous.”
— Alexandra Katehakis, Mirror of Intimacy: Daily Reflections on Emotional and Erotic Intelligence
Tagged: How To Think, Psychology, The Art of Awareness
“Yet writing a poem about something painful, she has discovered, can be her way of digesting it. 'One of the things I’ve learned is, if we try and put sadness off, it just waits. And in my experience, running away from sadness doesn’t do anybody any good.'”
— Frieda Hughes, Frieda Hughes: ‘I felt my parents were stolen’
Tagged: Poetry, Writing, Literature, Pain, Sad, Loneliness, Depression
“How do you know the difference between acknowledging pain and wallowing in it? There's no precise test. But if talking about or "explaining" or "understanding" your pain has become an excuse you use to avoid doing what you need to do, then you are probably wallowing.”
— Eric Greitens, Resilience: Hard-Won Wisdom for Living a Better Life
Tagged: How To Think, The Art of Awareness, Psychology, Philosophy
“Hollowness: that I understand. I'm starting to believe that there isn't anything you can do to fix it. That's what I've taken from the therapy sessions: the holes in your life are permanent. You have to grow around them, like tree roots around concrete; you mold yourself through the gaps.”
— Paula Hawkins, The Girl on the Train: A Novel
Tagged: Emptiness, Depression, therapy
“There is no point treating a depressed person as though she were just feeling sad, saying, 'There now, hang on, you'll get over it.' Sadness is more or less like a head cold- with patience, it passes. Depression is like cancer.”
— Barbara Kingsolver, The Bean Trees: A Novel
Tagged: Depression, Sadness, cancer
“Some people think mental illness is a matter of mood, a matter of personality. They think depression is simply a form of being sad, that OCD is a form of being uptight. They think the soul is sick, not the body. It is, they believe, something that you have some choice over.

I know how wrong this is.”
— David Levithan, Every Day
Tagged: Mental Illness, Depression, ocd
“The hardest thing about depression is that it is addictive. It begins to feel uncomfortable not to be depressed. You feel guilty for feeling happy.”
— Pete Wentz, Hyperbole and a Half
Tagged: Depression, addictive, Guilt, Happiness
“On December 31st of 1958 Lila had her first episode of dissolving margins. The term isn’t mine, she always used it. She said that on those occasions the outlines of people and things suddenly dissolved, disappeared. That night, on the terrace where we were celebrating the arrival of 1959, when she was abruptly struck by that sensation, she was frightened and kept it to herself, still unable to name it...  It seemed to her that everyone was shouting too loudly and moving too quickly. This sensation was accompanied by nausea, and she had had the impression that something absolutely material, which had been present around her and around everyone and everything forever, but imperceptible, was breaking down the outlines of persons and things and revealing itself. Her heart had started beating uncontrollably. She had begun to feel horror at the cries emerging from the throats of all those who were moving about on the terrace amid the smoke, amid the explosions, as if the sound obeyed new, unknown laws. Her nausea increased, the dialect had become unfamiliar, the way our wet throats bathed the words in the liquid of saliva was intolerable. A sense of repulsion had invested all the bodies in movement, their bone structure, the frenzy that shook them. How poorly made we are, she had thought, how insufficient. The broad shoulders, the arms, the legs, the ears, noses, eyes seemed to her attributes of monstrous beings who had fallen from some corner of the black sky. And the disgust, who knows why, was concentrated in particular on her brother Rino, the person who was closest to her, the person she loved most.”
— Elena Ferrante, My Brilliant Friend: Neapolitan Novels, Book One
Tagged: what anxiety feels like, anxiety in literature, Truth, Relatable, Depression, World, Perspective, coming of age
“Loneliness is the human condition. Cultivate it. The way it tunnels into you allows your soul room to grow. Never expect to outgrow loneliness. Never hope to find people who will understand you, someone to fill that space. An intelligent, sensitive person is the exception, the very great exception. If you expect to find people who will understand you, you will grow murderous with disappointment. The best you’ll ever do is to understand yourself, know what it is that you want, and not let the cattle stand in your way.”
— Janet Fitch, White Oleander
Tagged: Loneliness, Pain, Life Is A Journey, Sensitivity, vulnerability, Emotion
“Perhaps the greatest faculty our minds possess is the ability to cope with pain. Classic thinking teaches us of the four doors of the mind, which everyone moves through according to their need.

First is the door of sleep. Sleep offers us a retreat from the world and all its pain. Sleep marks passing time, giving us distance from the things that have hurt us. When a person is wounded they will often fall unconscious. Similarly, someone who hears traumatic news will often swoon or faint. This is the mind's way of protecting itself from pain by stepping through the first door.

Second is the door of forgetting. Some wounds are too deep to heal, or too deep to heal quickly. In addition, many memories are simply painful, and there is no healing to be done. The saying 'time heals all wounds' is false. Time heals most wounds. The rest are hidden behind this door.

Third is the door of madness. There are times when the mind is dealt such a blow it hides itself in insanity. While this may not seem beneficial, it is. There are times when reality is nothing but pain, and to escape that pain the mind must leave reality behind.

Last is the door of death. The final resort. Nothing can hurt us after we are dead, or so we have been told.”
— Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind
Tagged: Psychologists, Psychology, Anthropology, Soul Searching, Madness, Life Is A Journey, Pain, Sleep
“Although psychology and pedagogy have always maintained the belief that a child is a happy being without any conflicts, and have assumed that the sufferings of adults are the results of the burdens and hardships of reality, it must be asserted that just the opposite is true. What we learn about the child and the adult through psychoanalysis shows that all the sufferings of later life are for the most part repetitions of these earlier ones, and that every child in the first years of life goes through and immeasurable degree of suffering.”
— Melanie Klein, Narrative of a Child Analysis (The Writings of Melanie Klein)
Tagged: Suffering, Trauma, Children, Child Psychology, Psychologists, Hardship
“Untreated mental illness can lead to devastating consequences, including suicide, substance abuse, and long-term medical issues. We can do better. Every one of us can make a difference. By getting educated on this epidemic and its frightening statistics and by breaking the stigma.”
— Demi Lovato, DNC Speech, 2016
Tagged: Mental Illness, Depression, Facing Mental Illness, Battling Mental Illness, Finding Strength, Finding Your Voice
“Deep depression is due to a problem with brain chemistry, not a problem with inner weakness.”
— Karen Salmansohn, 15 Positive Quotes For When You're Depressed- Karen Salmansohn
Tagged: Don't Give Up, Depression, Brain, Weakness, strength
“To suffer is as human as to breathe.”
— Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Parts One and Two (Special Rehearsal Edition): The Official Script Book of the Original West End Production
Tagged: Suffering, Sad, Life, humanity, breathe, human
“Inactivity and depression feed on themselves. The more you wallow, the worse it gets.”
— Khloé Kardashian, Strong Looks Better Naked
Tagged: Depression, Wallow, Inactivity
“I don’t think people understand how stressful it is to explain what’s going on in your head when you don’t even understand it yourself.”
— Sara Quin, Quotes on Mental Illness Stigma - HealthyPlace
Tagged: Human Condition, Mental Health
“Loneliness is a quiet devastation.”
— Katie Hafner, Researchers Confront an Epidemic of Loneliness
Tagged: Loneliness, Depression, Single, Mental Health
“Loneliness has to be everybody’s business.”
— Paul Cann, Researchers Confront an Epidemic of Loneliness
Tagged: Loneliness, Depression, Mental Health
“Denying you feel lonely makes no more sense than denying you feel hunger.”
— John T. Cacioppo, Researchers Confront an Epidemic of Loneliness
Tagged: Loneliness, Depression, Mental Health
“We have this kind of male pride thing. We say, ‘I can look after myself. I don’t need to talk to anyone,’ and it’s a complete fallacy. Not communicating helps to kill us.”
— Mike Jenn, Researchers Confront an Epidemic of Loneliness
Tagged: Loneliness, Communication, Gender Wars, Masculinity
“The lonelier you are, the more your attention is drawn toward negative social information.”
— John Cacioppo, So Lonely It Hurts
Tagged: Loneliness
“Do you think grief is anything like depression? Go with grief. It's better. In grief you're at least feeling a rich, deep feeling. In depression you don't even have that, it's just that awful feeling of nullity.”
— Dick Cavett, BOOKS ON HEALTH; A Window Into Depression
Tagged: Depression, Grief, Emptiness
“Depression is worse than mere sadness or being in a ''bad mood.'' The hallmark of severe depression is 'an inclination to despair' and the inability of many people to feel anything whatsoever.”
— John Langone, BOOKS ON HEALTH; A Window Into Depression
Tagged: Depression, Mental Health
“The greatest barrier to seeking mental health care, especially for depression, is recognizing the need to seek care in the first place.”
— Elizabeth D. Arend, Treating Women for Depression
Tagged: Depression, Mental Health
“Antidepressants are not supposed to suppress a person’s emotions. Ideally, they are supposed to prevent a person’s mood from going too low. The antidepressants should not interfere with people feeling excited, sad, nervous or irritable when they need to feel these emotions. If an antidepressant is making a person flat, then it is time to change medication.”
— Laura Gaffney, Treating Women for Depression
Tagged: Mental Health, Medicine
“Everyone deserves to feel the normal range of emotions without having to be depressed or anxious to the point that it interferes with enjoying life.”
— Laura Gaffney, Treating Women for Depression
Tagged: Medicine, Depression, Anxiety, Enjoying Life, emotions