You can't fix yourself out of a mental health issue. You can't wake up and say, 'Today I'm not being depressed!' It's a process to get well, but there is recovery.
Interpretation
Recovery from mental health issues takes time and cannot be achieved simply by willpower.
This quote highlights the challenges of dealing with mental health issues and emphasizes that recovery is not a matter of just deciding to feel better each day. It acknowledges the complexity of mental health and the importance of the healing process, reinforcing that while it may be difficult, recovery is possible with time and proper support.
In practice
In a mental health awareness talk, highlighting the importance of understanding recovery processes.
Don't feel badly when you take off work to go for a run, to go for a walk; don't feel badly to take time to play with your children, to be part of their lives. Work is important, but you can't work at your best unless you're a whole person.
The label 'wife of the prime minister' is like a giant signboard pointing at my head from a Monty Python sketch. But I am not Mrs. Prime Minister. I'm a human being.
Do you know what prepares you for the mental hospital? Being a prime minister's wife.
Oh, am I a feminist? I usually say that I was an accidental feminist. Really, I was just being me.
I tried to be a good wife, but I was lost in my gilded cage.
I tried during the 1974 campaign to show my husband not as the aloof intellectual people think he is, but the warm, passionate man I know. But the day after the election - after I'd worked so hard - I was put back on the shelf. I was devastated.
Just as our parents quieted us when we were noisy by putting us in front of the television set, maybe we're now learning to quiet our own adult noise with Prozac.
Mania is as bad as it gets. If not treated, it will become worse, more frequent, and harder to treat.
I may have looked happy but inside I was hopelessly depressed.
When I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder the year I turned 50, it was certainly a shock. But as a journalist, knowing a little bit about a lot of things, I didn't suffer the misconception that depression was all in my head or a mark of poor character. I knew it was a disease, and, like all diseases, was treatable.
Depression on my left, Loneliness on my right. They don't need to show me thier badges. I know these guys very well.
When you're depressed, there's no calendar. There are no dates, there's no day, there's no night, there's no seconds, there's no minutes, there's nothing. You're just existing in this cold, murky, ever-heavy atmosphere, like they put you inside a vial of mercury.
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