His cigarettes helped mark the passage of time, especially on days that seemed all sun and sky…The dependable dwindling of his cigarette supply reassured him that he hadn’t been left out here, that eventually he...

I will be stronger than my sadness.

As a young man, I lived through the Great Depression, when banks failed and so many lost their jobs and homes and went hungry. I was fortunate to have a job at a canning factory...

I can’t think of anything more disheartening than living a life without a clear purpose.

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...

Depression is a painfully slow, crashing death. Mania is the other extreme, a wild roller coaster run off its tracks, an eight ball of coke cut with speed. It’s fun and it’s frightening as hell....

There was a lot about my life that was crappy, now that I couldn’t talk. But if I hadn’t gotten drunk that night, if I hadn’t gotten in that accident, would I have ever had...

For some nights I slept profoundly; but still every morning I felt the same lassitude, and a languor weighed upon me all day. I felt myself a changed girl. A strange melancholy was stealing over...

That was the crux. You. Only you could work on you. Nobody could force you, and if you weren’t ready, then you weren’t ready, and no amount of open-armed encouragement was going to change that.

There had been times when he knew, somewhere in him, that he would get used to it, whatever it was, because he had learnt that some hard things became softer after a very little while.

It was one of those dreams from which she woke up depressed about her reality, filled with a longing that pulled at her insides, wishing the dream could have lasted forever, or at least much...

Rather than assuming weakness or defectiveness, we should acknowledge that getting through depression requires considerable strength. Rather than assuming permanent debility, we should recognize that some depressions are followed by thriving.

He had the feeling that there was something physically behind his eyes, blocking the light.

I have a system with bathrooms. I spend a lot of time in them. They are sanctuaries, public places of peace spaced throughout the world for people like me.

It weren’t too loo long before I seen something in me, had changed. A bitter seed was planted inside of me. And I just didn’t feel so, accepting, anymore.

Billy covered his head with his blanket. He always covered his head when his mother came to see him in the mental ward – always got much sicker until she went away. It wasn’t that...

I met a boy whose eyes showed me that the past, present and future were all the same thing.

It doesn’t hurt. Nothing hurts except the small smiles and blushes that flash across the room like tiny sparrows.

The worst type of crying wasn’t the kind everyone could see–the wailing on street corners, the tearing at clothes. No, the worst kind happened when your soul wept and no matter what you did, there...

Since you act as though God is dead, I wanted to join you in the mourning.”The reply of Martin Luther’s wife, in full funeral regalia, in trying to illustrate the folly of his depressed state.

Nothing good comes out of depression.

What happens is my mind starts to go in circles, thinking and thinking, and then I can’t sleep. And once a couple of days go by, if you haven’t slept, you start to get sick....

When I recall memories, it all seems like a film, not a reality.

The further you descend into a pit, the darker things appear. You can’t keep digging to find the light.

In the old days the worst part of my depression used to be the astonishment it caused me, the scandalized way in which I fought against it. Nowadays, on the other hand, I accept it...

Depression – that limp word for the storm of black panic and half-demented malfunction – had over the years worked itself out in Charlotte’s life in a curious pattern. Its onset was often imperceptible: like...

I’ll never speak to God again.

I believe it. Talk about problems u get problems and solutions get solutions.

It was the face of a human being who’d been constructed exclusively of wounds. Not time or history or ambition, nothing but wounds. The face of a person who could probably kill someone without feeling...

One day, you will stand at the summit of a figurative mountain and look back on your life’s journey. And, to your utter amazement, you will see how your experiences with depression, dark and painful...

Almost everything carried to its logical extreme becomes either depressing or carcinogenic.

While I don’t equate the dark night with depression, I do think our depressive moods could be imagined spiritually rather than only psychologically.

There is a misconception about what depression looks like. People think it is crying all the time and wringing your hands. … [People with depression] rarely have that kind of emotional display.

Don’t ask me those questions! Don’t ask me what life means or how we know reality or why we have to suffer so much. Don’t talk about how nothing feels real, how everything is coated...

To multiply the years and divide by the desire to live is a kind of false accounting.

When entertainment was begun, during the Depression, it was supposed to take people’s minds off reality. People could sing, dance, act or do anything. It was the type of entertainment that was available.

Bridget’s anger evaporated and the sadness came back. The anger was easier. She owned and controlled it, whereas the sadness owned her.

Hit the bottom and get back up; or hit the bottle and stay down.

I imagine there’s a market for total depression. I grew up on George Jones and that really dark stuff.

I was in way too deep. I was cut in so many places that I felt like I was bleeding out from every part of my body. Being outside and watching people live their normal...

Smiles are a funny thingand laughter is hilarious.I smile sometimeswhen I am delirious.

She was completely alone in the world. There was no one at all for her. No one in the world who cared whether she lived or died. Sometimes the horror of that thought threatened to...

At the end of the day your ability to connect with your readers comes down to how you make them feel.

Understanding the difference between healthy striving and perfectionism is critical to laying down the shield and picking up your life. Research shows that perfectionism hampers success. In fact, it’s often the path to depression, anxiety,...

Sometimes I Curse My Love Affair with Life

Who am I? They often tell me I would step from my cell’s confinement calmly, cheerfully, firmly, like a squire from his country-house.Who am I? They often tell me I would talk to my warden...

There are those who wake up each morning to conquer the day, and then there are those of us who wake up only because we have to. We live in the shadow of every neighborhood....

That is all I want in life: for this pain to seem purposeful.

It seemed like this was one big Prozac nation, one big mess of malaise. Perhaps the next time half a million people gather for a protest march on the White House green it will not...

This comedy show will end.The endless streams of tears of a 79 year old woman are now enough for her to wash her swollen feet.