Kay Redfield Jamison quotes - page 2

Psychotherapy is a sanctuary; it is a battleground; it is a place I have been psychotic, neurotic, elated, confused, and despairing beyond belief. (Kay Redfield Jamison)
Because I teach and write about depression and bipolar illness, I am often asked what is the most important factor in treating bipolar disorder. My answer is competence. Empathy is important, but competence is essential. View quote
Kay Redfield Jamison
It took me far too long to realize that lost years and relationships cannot be recovered. That damage done to oneself and others cannot always be put right again. View quote
Kay Redfield Jamison
Suicide Note: The calm, Cool face of the river Asked me for a kiss. -Langston Hughes. View quote
Kay Redfield Jamison
I realized that it was not that I didn't want to go on without him. I did. It was just that I didn't know why I wanted to go on. View quote
Kay Redfield Jamison
I had been simply treating water, settling on surviving and avoiding pain rather than being actively involved in seeking out life. View quote
Kay Redfield Jamison
Mother, who has an absolute belief that it is not the cards that one is dealt in life, it is how one plays them, is, by far, the highest card I was dealt. View quote
Kay Redfield Jamison
... Time does not heal, It makes a half-stitched scar That can be broken and again you feel Grief as total as in its first hour. -Elizabeth Jennings. View quote
Kay Redfield Jamison
One is what one is, and the dishonesty of hiding behind a degree, or a title, or any manner and collection of words, is still exactly that: dishonest. View quote
Kay Redfield Jamison
There is always a part of my mind that is preparing for the worst, and another part of my mind that believes if I prepare enough for it, the worst won't happen. View quote
Kay Redfield Jamison
I had a terrible temper, after all, and though it rarely erupted, when it did it frightened me and anyone near its epicenter. It was the only crack, but a disturbing one, in the otherwise vacuum-sealed casing of my behavior. (Kay Redfield Jamison)
In some cases, some people do get depressed in the middle of their grief, and they really need to be treated for depression. View quote
Kay Redfield Jamison
You become aware of an illness by understanding yourself and understanding the meaning that that illness has in your own life, symbolically and, more importantly, quite literally. View quote
Kay Redfield Jamison
Mood disorders are terribly painful illnesses, and they are isolating illnesses. And they make people feel terrible about themselves when, in fact, they can be treated. View quote
Kay Redfield Jamison
Nothing good comes out of depression. View quote
Kay Redfield Jamison
The quickness and flexibility of a well mind, a belief or hope that things will eventually sort themselves out-these are the resources lost to a person when the brain is ill. View quote
Kay Redfield Jamison
Without science, there would be no such hope. View quote
Kay Redfield Jamison
Moods are such an essential part of the substance of life, of one's notion of oneself, that even psychotic extremes in mood and behavior somehow can be seen as temporary, even understandable, reactions to what life has dealt. View quote
Kay Redfield Jamison
You're frightened, and you're frightening, and you're 'not at all like yourself but you will be soon,' but you know you won't. View quote
Kay Redfield Jamison
Children need the freedom and time to play. Play is not a luxury; the time spent engaged in it is not time that could be better spent in more formal educational pursuits. Play is a necessity. View quote
Kay Redfield Jamison
Never once, during any of my bouts of depression, had I been inclined or able to pick up a telephone and ask a friend for help. It wasn't in me. (Kay Redfield Jamison)
I have had manic-depressive illness, also known as bipolar disorder, since I was 18 years old. It is an illness that ensures that those who have it will experience a frightening, chaotic and emotional ride. It is not a gentle or easy disease. View quote
Kay Redfield Jamison
Every seventeen minutes in America, someone commits suicide. Mostly, I have been impressed by how little value our society puts on saving the lives of those who are in such despair as to want to end them. It is a societal illusion that suicide is rare. It is not. View quote
Kay Redfield Jamison
People are more impulsive and they get slightly less impulsive as they get older and the impulsiveness interacting with the depression is particularly devastating and lethal, potentially lethal. View quote
Kay Redfield Jamison
Time will pass; these mood will pass; and I will, eventually, be myself again. But then, at some unknown time, the electrifying carnival will come back into my mind. View quote
Kay Redfield Jamison