“Such people who choose to depress are not mentally ill; their brain chemistry is not abnormal. It is changed from what it is when they are happy, but that change is perfectly normal for the total behavior, depressing, they are choosing…. The brain chemistry no more causes his depressing than sweating causes running. It is the choice to depress or to run that results in both.”

—  William Glasser

Source: Choice Theory (1997), p. 85

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Such people who choose to depress are not mentally ill; their brain chemistry is not abnormal. It is changed from what …" by William Glasser?
William Glasser photo
William Glasser 14
American psychiatrist 1925–2013

Related quotes

Mark Manson photo

“Hopelessness is the root of anxiety, mental illness, and depression. It is the source of all misery and the cause of all addiction.”

Mark Manson book Everything Is Fucked
Kay Redfield Jamison photo

“I have often asked myself whether, given the choice, I would choose to have manic-depressive illness. … Strangely enough, I think I would choose to have it. It's complicated. Depression is awful beyond words or sounds or images … So why would I want anything to do with this illness? Because I honestly believe that as a result of it I have felt more things, more deeply; had more experiences, more intensely; … worn death 'as close as dungarees', appreciated it - and life - more; seen the finest and most terrible in people … But, normal or manic, I have run faster, thought faster, and loved faster than most I know. And I think much of this is related to my illness - the intensity it gives to things”

Kay Redfield Jamison (1946) American bipolar disorder researcher

An Unquiet Mind

Eric R. Kandel photo

“A brain scan may reveal the neural signs of depression, but a Beethoven symphony reveals what that depression feels like. Both perspectives are necessary if we are to fully grasp the nature of mind, yet they are rarely brought together.”

Eric R. Kandel (1929) American neuropsychiatrist

The Age of Insight (2012)

Bell Hooks photo

“Isolation and loneliness are central causes of depression and despair.”

Bell Hooks book All About Love: New Visions

Source: All About Love: New Visions

Marilyn Ferguson photo

“Mental states such as loneliness, compulsion, anguish, attachment, pain, and faith are not just "all in the head" but in the brain as well. Brain, mind, and body are a continuum. Our thoughts—intention, fear, images, suggestion, expectation— alter the brain's chemistry. And it works both ways; thoughts can be altered by changing the brain's chemistry with drugs, nutrients, oxygen. The brain is hopelessly complex.”

Marilyn Ferguson (1938–2008) American writer

The Aquarian Conspiracy (1980), Chapter Six, Liberating Knowledge: News from the Frontiers of Science

Swami Sivananda photo

“Run in the open air. Do mild Pranayama. Chant OM. Sing with devotion. Dance in ecstasy. Depression will vanish soon. You are Ananda Svarupa—where is gloom and depression? They are mental creations only. Remain silent. You can gain more by silence.”

Swami Sivananda (1887–1963) Indian philosopher

Overcome Depression and Gloom
Autobiography of Swami Sivananda

Peter F. Drucker photo

“If war production should remain the only way out of a long-term depression, industrial society would be reduced to the choice between suicide through total war or suicide through total depression.”

Peter F. Drucker book Concept of the Corporation

Concept of the Corporation (1945)
compare Dwight Eisenhower's January, 1961 Farewell Speech
1930s- 1950s

Kay Redfield Jamison photo

“Somehow, like so many people who get depressed, we felt our depressions were more complicated and existentially based than they actually were.”

Kay Redfield Jamison (1946) American bipolar disorder researcher

Source: An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness

“Stimulation of brain pleasure centers can eliminate feelings of rage, fear, and depression.”

James W. Prescott (1930) American psychologist

"Before Ethics and Morality" (1972)

Related topics