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Kay Redfield Jamison

Kay Redfield Jamison Quotes

Psychologist

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Famous Kay Redfield Jamison Quotes

“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.”

PsychologyDepressionMental IllnessBipolarManicManiaMental DisorderBipolar DisorderPsychopathologyManic Depression
Book:An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness
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“Others imply that they know what it is like to be depressed because they have gone through a divorce, lost a job, or broken up with someone. But these experiences carry with them feelings. Depression, instead, is flat, hollow, and unendurable. ... You're frightened, and you're frightening, and you're 'not at all like yourself but will be soon,' but you know you won't.”

KnowsFeelingsJobsLostGoneLike YouBrokenDepressionIllnessDivorceMental IllnessFlatsFrightenedFrighteningHollowBroken UpLike YourselfUnendurableClinical Depression
Book:An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness
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“the intensity, glory, and absolute assuredness if my mind's flight made it very difficult for me to believe once i was better, that the illness was one i should willingly give up....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....even though the depressions that inevitably followed nearly cost me my life.”

IfsGivingShouldMindBelieveMadeDifficultCostEssentialsDepressionGiving UpBehaviorGloryAbsolutesNotionOneselfIllnessExtremesMoodReactionsFlightMade ItSubstanceTemporaryIntensityPsychotic
Author:Kay Redfield Jamison
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“But then back on lithium and rotating on the planet at the same pace as everyone else, you find your credit is decimated, your mortification complete: mania is not a luxury one can easily afford. It is devastating to have the illness and aggravating to have to pay for medications, blood tests, and psychotherapy. They, at least, are partially deductible. 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.”

ReasonGivenLossPayBloodPlanetsFitDepressionConceptsTestsIllnessCreditMedicalLuxuryExcellentInternalsExpensesPaceRevenueMedicationPsychotherapyManicManiaMortificationAggravatingRotatingLithiumBlood Tests
Book:Manic-Depressive Illness: Bipolar Disorders and Recurrent Depression
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“It was as if my father had given me, by way of temperament, an impossibly wild, dark, and unbroken horse. It was a horse without a name, and a horse with no experience of a bit between its teeth. My mother taught me to gentle it; gave me the discipline and love to break it; and- as Alexander had known so intuitively with Bucephalus- she understood, and taught me, that the beast was best handled by turning it toward the sun.”

IfsWayMotherFatherNamesGivenBitsDarkKnownBreakSunTaughtDisciplineDepressionUnderstoodAnd LoveHorseTeethGentleBeastTemperamentUnbroken
Author:Kay Redfield Jamison
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“There is a particular kind of pain, elation, loneliness, and terror involved in this kind of madness. When you're high it's tremendous. The ideas and feelings are fast and frequent like shooting stars....But, somewhere, this changes. The fast ideas are far too fast, and there are far too many; overwhelming confusion replaces clarity. Everything previously moving with the grain is now against-you are irritable, angry, frightened, uncontrollable....It will never end, for madness carves its own reality.”

KindIdeasEndsFeelingsRealityPainMovingStarsLonelinessParticularInvolvedDepressionMadnessAngryTerrorConfusionClarityShootingFrightenedOverwhelmingGrainUncontrollableElationShooting Star
Author:Kay Redfield Jamison
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