#illness

Her parents, she said, has put a pinball machine inside her head when she was five years old. The red balls told her when she should laugh, the blue ones when she should be silent and keep away from other people; the green balls told her that she should start multiplying by three. Every few days a silver ball would make its way through the pins of the machine. At this point her head turned and she stared at me; I assumed she was checking to see if I was still listening. I was, of course. How could one not? The whole thing was bizarre but riveting. I asked her, What does the silver ball mean? She looked at me intently, and then everything went dead in her eyes. She stared off into space, caught up in some internal world. I never found out what the silver ball meant. ↗

— Kay Redfield Jamison

#bipolar-disorder #depression #mania #manic #manic-depression

A poet should be so crafty with words that he is envied even for his pains. ↗

— Criss Jami

#adversity #artist #craftiness #craftsmanship #crafty

Presque tous les hommes meurent de leurs remèdes, et non pas de leurs maladies. ↗

— Molière

#illness #medicine #remedies #humor

But money spent while manic doesn't fit into the Internal Revenue Service concept of medical expense or business loss. So after mania, when most depressed, you're given excellent reason to be even more so. ↗

— Kay Redfield Jamison

#humor #mania #manic #mental-illness #psychology

There are sins much more serious than socio-pathologies which really are mental illnesses, whereas self-righteousness is an illness of the soul." ~R. Alan Woods [2013] ↗

— R. Alan Woods

#r-alan-woods #self-righteousness #sins #sociopathology #sociopaths

But Hey, Guess What Crazy means I'm not liable for my actions. So screw it, I'll go home, propped up on Prozac against distractions ↗

— Ellen Hopkins

#mental-illness #mental-illness

Always remember, if you have been diagnosed with PTSD, it is not a sign of weakness; rather, it is proof of your strength, because you have survived! ↗

— Michel Templet

#mental-illness #ptsd #inspirational

You are no ruin sir--no lighting-struck tree: you are green and vigorous. Plants will grow about your roots, whether you ask them or not, because they take delight in your bountiful shadow; and as they grow they will lean towards you, and wind round you, because your strength offers them so safe a prop. ↗

— Charlotte Brontë

#happiness #illness #love #marriage #safety

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

— Jeffrey Eugenides

#mental-health #mental-illness #marriage

This was a characteroloical prelude, but it wasn’t chemical or somatic. It was the anatomy of melancholy, not the anatomy of his brain. ↗

— Jeffrey Eugenides

#chemical #marriage-plot #melancholy #mental-health #mental-illness