Kay Redfield Jamison Quotes

‘Confidentiality is an ancient and well-warranted social value.’ – Kay Redfield Jamison

‘I love animals, and I was always attracted to the idea of being a zoo veterinarian or a veterinarian with the circus.’ – Kay Redfield Jamison

‘No pill can help me deal with the problem of not wanting to take pills; likewise, no amount of psychotherapy alone can prevent my manias and depressions. I need both.’ – Kay Redfield Jamison

‘It is an odd thing, owing life to pills, one’s own quirks and tenacities, and this unique, strange, and ultimately profound relationship called psychotherapy.’ – Kay Redfield Jamison

‘When public figures remain silent about depression, there is a cost to the rest of society. Silence contributes to the misperception that successful people do not get depressed, and it keeps the public from seeing that treatment allows many individuals to return to competitive professional lives.’ – Kay Redfield Jamison

‘We expect well-informed treatment for cancer or heart disease; it matters no less for depression.’ – Kay Redfield Jamison

‘Lithium prevents my seductive but disastrous highs, diminishes my depressions, clears out the wool and webbing from my disordered thinking, slows me down, gentles me out, keeps me from ruining my career and relationships, keeps me out of a hospital, alive, and makes psychotherapy possible.’ – Kay Redfield Jamison

‘Never once, during any of my bouts of depression, had I been inclined or able to pick up a telephone and ask a friend for help. It wasn’t in me.’ – Kay Redfield Jamison

‘Mood disorders are terribly painful illnesses, and they are isolating illnesses. And they make people feel terrible about themselves when, in fact, they can be treated.’ – Kay Redfield Jamison

‘One of things so bad about depression and bipolar disorder is that if you don’t have prior awareness, you don’t have any idea what hit you.’ – Kay Redfield Jamison