Charles R. Swindoll Quotes

Grief is depression in proportion to circumstance; depression is grief out of proportion to circumstance. It is tumbleweed distress that thrives on thin air, growing despite its detachment from the nourishing earth. It can be described only in metaphor and allegory

I have been to hell and back. I had a very, very bad nervous breakdown.

The root of the problem I have is anxiety, and it's all derived from something - I'm just going to say it, some kind of sadness. It manifests in so many different ways and it affects people differently.

I started having anxiety attacks and panic attacks. I would cry myself to sleep every night and wish I could go back in time and get my life back and be a human again instead of a photo op.

I've suffered from anxiety and a lot of other things.

People who have been through trauma, their souls are hurting.

The denial of suffering is, in fact a better definition of illness than its acceptance.

no one had experiences any more, only traumas.

There's no such thing as mental illness. We're all mentally ill and we're all haunted by something, and some people manage to find a way to ride it out so that they don't wind up needing extra help. So I think that "mental illness," as a term, is garbage. Everybody is in various states of needing to transcend something.

The neurotic doesn't know how to cope with his emotional bills; some he keeps paying over and over, others he never pays at all.

A sick thought can devour the body's flesh more than fever or consumption.

Fate is trying to kill me. I miss my dog. What's a doctor going to say? You're not ill, you're mad as a muffin? They'll either lock me up or tell me to get a grip and no one will believe the truth anyway.

Depression...so mysteriously painful and elusive.

Poverty is clearly one source of emotional suffering, but there are others, like loneliness.

If people can't deal with their problems, they numb themselves a little bit.

Cutting, and suicide, two very different symptoms of the same problem, are gaining on us. I personally don't know a single person who doesn't know at least two of these victims personally.

In the investigation of a neurotic style of life, we must always suspect an opponent, and note who suffers most because of the patient's condition. Usually this is a member of the family.

It is a queer thing, but imaginary troubles are harder to bear than actual ones.

Thinking you've had depression makes about as much sense as thinking you've been run over by a bus. Trust me - you know when you've got depression.

Depression, if it's an unconsciously elected experience, is a luxury.

My fears and anxieties throughout my whole life have been slowly squeezing my voice.

It's difficult to admit to ourselves that we suffer. We feel humiliated, like we should have been able to control our pain. If someone else is suffering, we like to tuck them away, out of sight. It's a cruel, cruel conditioning. There is no controlling the unfolding of life.

Grief comes and goes, but depression is unremitting.

No, originally I thought that writing articles would keep me from having to see a psychiatrist, but I became even more depressed as a result.

I think that there are cancers of the body, but I think they are what I would call cancer of the emotional system, too. These are the kind of diseases or illnesses or sicknesses of the emotional system that are as incurable as cancer.