The more specific you are about a very general feeling of loneliness is actually how you connect with people.
Phoebe BridgersRead
People are realising that vulnerability isn't a weakness, and the rise of mental health-related humour is making vulnerability feel like a strength.
Interpretation
Vulnerability is increasingly recognized as a strength rather than a weakness, aided by the acceptance of mental health-related humor.
Phoebe Bridgers highlights a shift in societal perception where vulnerability, often seen as a sign of weakness, is now embraced as a strength. This change is partly influenced by mental health-related humor, which helps people feel more comfortable expressing their vulnerabilities and acknowledging their struggles, ultimately fostering a healthier dialogue around mental health.
In practice
In a TED talk about mental health, you could use this quote to emphasize the importance of being open about struggles.
Depression isn't just being a bit sad. It's feeling nothing. It's not wanting to be alive anymore.
Depression is a prison where you are both the suffering prisoner and the cruel jailer.
There is no point treating a depressed person as though she were just feeling sad, saying, 'There now, hang on, you'll get over it.' Sadness is more or less like a head cold- with patience, it passes. Depression is like cancer.
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.
I've never had a sustained period of medication for mental illness when I've not been on other drugs as well. It's just not something that I particularly feel I need. I know that I have dramatically changing moods, and I know sometimes I feel really depressed, but I think that's just life. I don't think of it as, "Ah, this is mental illness," more as, "Today, life makes me feel very sad." I know I also get unnaturally high levels of energy and quickness of thought, but I'm able to utilize that.
There are peaks, there are valleys. But they're all kind of carved and smoothed out, and it feels like a low level of despair you live in. Where you're not getting any answers, but you're living OK. And you can smile at the office. You know? But it's a low level of despair. I was on Prozac for a long time. It may have helped me out of a jam for a little bit, but people stay on it forever. I had to get off at a certain point because I realized that, you know, everything's just OK.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.