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Kay Redfield Jamison

Kay Redfield Jamison Quotes

Psychologist

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Famous Kay Redfield Jamison Quotes

“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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“When people are suicidal, their thinking is paralyzed, their options appear spare or nonexistent, their mood is despairing, and hopelessness permeates their entire mental domain. The future cannot be separated from the present, and the present is painful beyond solace. ‘This is my last experiment,’ wrote a young chemist in his suicide note. ‘If there is any eternal torment worse than mine I’ll have to be shown.”

PeopleIfsThinkingLastsYoungMinesEternalSuicideNotesPainfulMoodExperimentsSparesTormentHopelessnessSuicidalDomainSolaceParalyzedChemistSuicide Note
Book:Night Falls Fast: Understanding Suicide
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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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“I have often asked myself whether, given the choice, I would choose to have manic-depressive illness. If lithium were not available to me, or didn't work for me, the answer would be a simple no... and it would be an answer laced with terror. But lithium does work for me, and therefore I can afford to pose the question. Strangely enough, I think I would choose to have it. It's complicated.”

IfsThinkingDoeI CanEnoughWould BeChoicesGivenSimpleAnswersIllnessTerrorAvailableComplicatedBipolarManicDepressiveLithium
Book:An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness
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“Others would say to me, 'It is only temporary, it will pass, you will get over it,' but of course they had no idea how I felt, although they were certain that they did. Over and over and over I would say to myself, If I can't feel, if I can't move, if I can't think, and I can't care, then what conceivable point is there in living?”

IfsThinkingFeelsI CanIdeasCareMovingCertainCoursesFeltNo IdeaOver ItTemporaryGet Over
Book:An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness
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