my brain had begun to endure its familiar siege: panic and dislocation, and a sense that my thought processes were being engulfed by a toxic and unnameable tide that obliterated any enjoyable response to the living world.
William StyronRead
My mother struggled immensely with mental illness, and so did I. She grew up bipolar, but it was never diagnosed nor recognized. It was shrugged off like a 'symptom' of being female - of her being weak. I also experienced this growing up: I felt that the great pain I experienced was a dramatisation.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote reflects the struggles of mental illness and the societal stigma surrounding it, particularly for women.
Petra Collins discusses the challenges of living with mental illness, both in her own life and in the life of her mother, highlighting how societal expectations and misunderstandings can lead to the trivialization of significant struggles. The quote underscores the need for recognition and proper diagnosis of mental health issues rather than dismissing them as mere weaknesses or misconceptions about gender.
Themes
Mental HealthStigmaBipolarStruggleAwareness
In practice
Example use cases
In a mental health awareness campaign to emphasize the importance of understanding mental illnesses.
Similar quotes
When I look at the patients that I've cared for with mental illness, I know that many of them took years to come forward and tell somebody that they were in pain and that they needed help.
Vivek MurthyRead
I guess I realize that I don't want to die. I don't want to live either, but-there really isn't anything in-between. Depression is about as close as you get to somewhere between dead and alive, and it's the worst. But since the tendency toward inertia means that it's easier for me to stay alive than die, I guess that's how it's going to be, so I guess I should try to be happy.
Elizabeth WurtzelRead
Mania starts off fun, not sleeping for days, keeping company with your brain, which has become a wonderful computer, showing 24 TV channels all about you. That goes horribly wrong after awhile.
Carrie FisherRead
I have a feeling I shall go mad. I cannot go on longer in these terrible times. I shan't recover this time. I hear voices and cannot concentrate on my work. I have fought against it but cannot fight any longer.
Virginia WoolfRead
I think it's always been normal for humans to compare themselves to each other, but we're so hyper-connected all the time now that it's driving us insane.
Mark MansonRead