“Manic-depression is a disease that both kills and gives life. Fire, by its nature, both creates and destroys.” — Kay Redfield Jamison Copy Share Image
I am by temperament an optimist, and I thought from the beginning that there was much to be written about suicide that… — Kay Redfield Jamison Copy Share Image
One of things so bad about depression and bipolar disorder is that if you don't have prior awareness, you don't have any… — Kay Redfield Jamison Copy Share Image
Mania can be as terrifying as it gets. It is certainly as insane as one gets and so it's frightening when it… — Kay Redfield Jamison Copy Share Image
I think people don't understand how intimately tied suicide is to mental illness, particularly to depressive illness and bipolar illness. — Kay Redfield Jamison Copy Share Image
There are scientists all around the world looking for the genes responsible for bipolar illness and major depression. — Kay Redfield Jamison Copy Share Image
Manic depression distorts moods and thoughts, incites dreadful behaviors, destroys the basis of rational thought, and too often erodes the desire and… — Kay Redfield Jamison Copy Share Image
Mania is as bad as it gets. If not treated, it will become worse, more frequent, and harder to treat. — Kay Redfield Jamison Copy Share Image
Every seventeen minutes in America, someone commits suicide. Mostly, I have been impressed by how little value our society puts on saving… — Kay Redfield Jamison Copy Share Image
Lithium remains the gold standard, but many drugs now treat bipolar disorder. Medication is critical and should be combined with psychotherapy. Compliance… — Kay Redfield Jamison Copy Share Image
There is no common standard for education about diagnosis. Distinguishing between bipolar depression and major depressive disorder, for example, can be difficult,… — Kay Redfield Jamison Copy Share Image
But money spent while manic doesn't fit into the Internal Revenue Service concept of medical expense or business loss. So after mania,… — Kay Redfield Jamison Copy Share Image
Several politicians and wives of politicians have been public about their experiences with depression or bipolar illness, including Lawton Chiles, Patrick Kennedy,… — Kay Redfield Jamison Copy Share Image
I think one thing is that anybody who's had to contend with mental illness - whether it's depression, bipolar illness or severe… — Kay Redfield Jamison Copy Share Image
I have often asked myself whether, given the choice, I would choose to have manic-depressive illness. If lithium were not available to… — Kay Redfield Jamison Copy Share Image
I compare myself with my former self, not with others. Not only that, I tend to compare my current self with the… — Kay Redfield Jamison Copy Share Image
Others imply that they know what it is like to be depressed because they have gone through a divorce, lost a job,… — Kay Redfield Jamison Copy Share Image
But then back on lithium and rotating on the planet at the same pace as everyone else, you find your credit is… — Kay Redfield Jamison Copy Share Image
Manic-depression distorts moods and thoughts, incites dreadful behaviors, destroys the basis of rational thought, and too often erodes the desire and will… — Kay Redfield Jamison Copy Share Image
“Her parents, she said, has put a pinball machine inside her head when she was five years old. The red balls told… — Kay Redfield Jamison Copy Share Image
“There is a particular kind of pain, elation, loneliness, and terror involved in this kind of madness. When you're high it's tremendous.… — Kay Redfield Jamison Copy Share Image
“When I am high I couldn’t worry about money if I tried. So I don’t. The money will come from somewhere; I… — Kay Redfield Jamison Copy Share Image
“When I am high I couldn’t worry about money if I tried. So I don’t. The money will come from somewhere; I… — Kay Redfield Jamison Copy Share Image
I have had manic-depressive illness, also known as bipolar disorder, since I was 18 years old. It is an illness that ensures… — Kay Redfield Jamison Copy Share Image
It's more common than not that bipolar illness will start in the teens. One of the reasons I spend a lot of… — Kay Redfield Jamison Copy Share Image
When I am high I couldn't worry about money of I tried. So I don't. The money will come from from somewhere;… — Kay Redfield Jamison Copy Share Image
Anybody who's had to contend with mental illness - whether it's depression, bipolar illness or severe anxiety, whatever - actually has a… — Kay Redfield Jamison Copy Share Image
Because I teach and write about depression and bipolar illness, I am often asked what is the most important factor in treating… — Kay Redfield Jamison Copy Share Image
“...even though [my psychiatrist] understood mor than anyone how much I felt I was losing--in energy, vivacity, and originality--by taking medication, he never was… — Kay Redfield Jamison Copy Share
When people are suicidal, their thinking is paralyzed, their options appear spare or nonexistent, their mood is despairing, and hopelessness permeates their entire mental… — Kay Redfield Jamison Copy Share
It's more common than not that bipolar illness will start in the teens. One of the reasons I spend a lot of time on… — Kay Redfield Jamison Copy Share
I think that for thousands of years people have made the observation that there are certain kinds of extreme depressive states that seem to… — Kay Redfield Jamison Copy Share
Every seventeen minutes in America, someone commits suicide. Mostly, I have been impressed by how little value our society puts on saving the lives… — Kay Redfield Jamison Copy Share
Mother, who has an absolute belief that it is not the cards that one is dealt in life, it is how one plays them,… — Kay Redfield Jamison Copy Share
“I decided early in graduate school that I needed to do something about my moods. It quickly came down to a choice between seeing… — Kay Redfield Jamison Copy Share
When I'm talking about depression, I'm talking about the more severe forms of depression, and I think that conceptualising as a form of grief… — Kay Redfield Jamison Copy Share
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… — Kay Redfield Jamison Copy Share
I wish I could explain it so someone could understand it. I'm afraid it's something I can't put into words. There's just this heavy,… — Kay Redfield Jamison Copy Share
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… — Kay Redfield Jamison Copy Share
We expect well-informed treatment for cancer or heart disease; it matters no less for depression. — Kay Redfield Jamison Copy Share
Manic depression distorts moods and thoughts, incites dreadful behaviors, destroys the basis of rational thought, and too often erodes the desire and will to… — Kay Redfield Jamison Copy Share
People talk about grief as if it's kind of an unremittingly awful thing, and it is. It is painful, but it's a very, very… — Kay Redfield Jamison Copy Share
