I intended to have this ready in time for World Bipolar Day, which was March 30. And it’s months late. This is because my brain is often on fire, and when it is, writing words is hard. When you have 5-50 ideas streaming through your head, you struggle to follow one of them. All the ideas feel equally important and then begin to feel utterly unattainable. Eventually, I cycle into more focused productivity. So here I am—getting the brain fire all over again, so I will save exploring this introductory statement for another post, perhaps about the similarities between ADHD, anxiety, and bipolar spectrum or perhaps about racing thoughts, creative ideas, or energy fluctuations. The complexity and subtle nuances of mood disorders simultaneously fascinate me and make me want to punch a wall. How do you reckon with the nuance, cycles, and mood surprises? Quotes can be a start.
Bipolar disorder affects an estimated 5 million adults every year in America and around 40 million globally. Because of the deep stigma and misunderstanding of the illness as well as the illness’s symptoms, many people living with a bipolar spectrum or mood disorder cycle through feeling very alone, confused, hopeless, and overwhelmed. Our thoughts can be our enemies; our decisions can lead to cleaning up lots of messes, and sometimes when in the throes of an ‘episode,’ we do have the insight to look for support. But during Hard Times, support is often difficult to ask for, and we need something now. Getting a moment of reprieve when reading a quote can make the cycle more bearable.
Quotes can be a refuge, giving someone a sense that they are not alone and that others are having similar challenges. Also, it’s hard for some to read complex sentences and passages when in the throes of a mood event. Quotes lean towards simplicity and efficiency.
Not all of the people quoted have/had a mood disorder; although some did/do. Take what you want from the ideas. Notice what resonates. Notice what doesn’t.
Melancholia is the beginning and a part of mania . . . . The development of a mania is really a worsening of the disease (melancholia) rather than a change into another disease. —Aretaeus of Cappadocia (possibly one of the earliest quotes about mood disorders, 30-90 AD)
Diseases have no eyes. They pick with a dizzy finger anyone, just anyone. –Sandra Cisneros, The House on Mango Street
At times, being bipolar can be an all-consuming challenge, requiring a lot of stamina and even more courage, so if you’re living with this illness and functioning at all, it’s something to be proud of, not ashamed of. —Carrie Fisher
Sometimes I sound like gravel, and sometimes I sound like coffee and cream.—Nina Simone
That's the thing about depression: A human being can survive almost anything, as long as she sees the end in sight. But depression is so insidious, and it compounds daily, that it's impossible to ever see the end. —Elizabeth Wurtzel
Those who love you are not fooled by mistakes you have made or dark images you hold about yourself. They remember your beauty when you feel ugly; your wholeness when you are broken; your innocence when you feel guilty; and your purpose when you are confused. –Alan Cohen
I have just now come from a party where I was its life and soul; witticisms streamed from my lips, everyone laughed and admired me, but I went away — yes, the dash should be as long as the radius of the earth's orbit ——————————— and wanted to shoot myself. ― Søren Kierkegaard
My own brain is to me the most unaccountable of machinery - always buzzing, humming, soaring roaring diving, and then buried in mud. And why? What's this passion for? ― Virginia Woolf
Anybody remotely interesting is mad in some way or another. ― Steven Moffat
Being bipolar is like not knowing how to swim. It might be embarrassing to tell people, and it might be hard to take you certain places. But they have arm floaties. And if you just take your arm floaties, you can go wherever the hell you want. —Taylor Tomlison
All that I want is to wake up fine. —Paramore
Do not judge me by my successes, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again. —Nelson Mandela
Until recently, I lived in denial and isolation and in constant fear someone would expose me. It was too heavy a burden to carry, and I simply couldn’t do that anymore. I sought and received treatment, I put positive people around me, and I got back to doing what I love. –Mariah Carey
If you’re going through hell, keep going. —Winston Churchill
If you know someone who’s depressed, please resolve never to ask them why. Depression isn’t a straightforward response to a bad situation; depression just is, like the weather. —Stephen Fry
In my episodes, I tend to oscillate quickly between hyper anxiety, paranoia, suicidal thoughts and shame … I have been on medication for 5 years, and that initiated a drastic diminish in the intensity and duration of episodes. —Mary Lambert
Madness is to think of too many things in succession too fast, or of one thing too exclusively. —Voltaire
When I am high I couldn’t worry about money if I tried. So I don’t. The money will come from somewhere; I am entitled; God will provide. Credit cards are disastrous, personal checks worse. Unfortunately, for manics anyway, mania is a natural extension of the economy. What with credit cards and bank accounts there is little beyond reach. —Kay Redfield Jamison
It can be a long and difficult road, but mental illness is treatable. There is hope, even when your brain tells you there isn’t. —John Green
You be so high you can shake hands with somebody in the sky. —Champion Jack Dupree
The cruelest curse of the disease is also its most sacred promise: You will not feel this way forever.
― Terri Cheney
But I can hardly sit still. I keep fidgeting, crossing one leg and then the other. I feel like I could throw off sparks, or break a window--maybe rearrange all the furniture. —Raymond Carver
The difference between hope and despair is a different way of telling stories from the same facts.
― Alain de Botton
Nobody would believe what an effort it is to do what little I am able, - to dress and entertain, and order things. ― Charlotte Perkins Gilman
In the lives of the saddest of us, there are bright days like this, when we feel as if we could take the great world in our arms and kiss it. Then come the gloomy hours, when the fire will neither burn on our hearths nor in our hearts; and all without and within is dismal, cold and dark. Believe me, every heart has its secret sorrows, which the world knows not, and oftentimes we call a man cold, when he is only sad. --Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
First, silence makes us pilgrims. Secondly, silence guards the fire within. Thirdly, silence teaches us to speak.—Henri J.M. Nouwen
One of the oldest human needs is having someone to wonder where you are when you don't come home at night. —Margaret Mead
It’s not the load that breaks you down, it’s the way you carry it. – Lena Horne
Isn’t it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it yet? – L. M. Montgomery
I'm not bipolar, I've just had a bipolar life foisted upon me.—Unknown
Meanwhile in my head, I’m undergoing open-heart surgery.—Anne Sexton
Anxiety was born in the very same moment as mankind. And since we will never be able to master it, we will have to learn to live with it—just as we have learned to live with storms. —Paulo Coelho
What's been important in my understanding of myself and others is the fact that each one of us is so much more than any one thing. A sick child is much more than his or her sickness. A person with a disability is much, much more than a handicap. A pediatrician is more than a medical doctor. You're MUCH more than your job description or your age or your income or your output. —Fred Rogers
One of the things so bad about bipolar disorder is that if you don’t have prior awareness, you don’t have any idea what hit you. – Unknown
The mania is like wasps under the skin, like my head’s going to explode with ideas. – Alice Weaver Flaherty
Do I fear the sleepless nights? You have no idea how long the dark lasts when you cannot close your eyes to it. – Tyler Knott Gregson
Sometimes, even to live is an act of courage. – Seneca
Suicide too often results from the impulsive nature and physical speed of mania coupled with depression’s paranoid self-loathing. – Unknown
I’m fine, but I’m bipolar. I’m on seven medications, and I take medication three times a day. This constantly puts me in touch with the illness I have. I’m never quite allowed to be free of that for a day. It’s like being a diabetic. – Carrie Fisher
You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it. —Maya Angelou
Bipolar disorder thinking is always unreasonable and unrealistic. Always. There are no exceptions. So if your normally reasonable partner is being unreasonable, you know that you are dealing with bipolar disorder and not with a personality flaw.
― Julie A. Fast
That’s my messy, disorganized quote bonanza. Someday, I’ll categorize, and for now, it is what it is. Remember, you are not alone! And reach out if you’d like to talk.
