Quotes from book

Prozac Nation

“One morning you wake up and are afraid you are going to live. In my case, I was not frightened in the least bit at the thought that I might live because I was certain, quite certain, that I was already dead.”

“Woke up this morning afraid I was gonna live.”

“In the meantime, I could withdraw to my room, could hide and sleep as if I were dead”

“One of the terrible fallacies of contemporary psychotherapy is that if people would just say how they felt, a lot of problems could be solved.”

“I wasn't just the madwoman in the attic--I was the attic itself. The past was all over me, all under me, all inside me.”

“Sometimes, I get so consumed by depression that it is hard to believe that the whole world doesn't stop and suffer with me.”

“I was so scared to give up depression, fearing that somehow the worst part of me was actually all of me.”

“Getting help for substance abuse can be reduced to the deceptively simple focus of ‘keeping away from the dope.’ But what does getting help with depression mean? Learning to keep away from your own mind?”

“I come from a family of screamers. If they are trying to express any emotion or idea beyond pass the salt, it comes in shrieks.”

“My God, I could raise a family of six children and hold down a full-time job with all the energy I expend on depression!”

“Sometimes I wish I could walk around with a HANDLE WITH CARE sign stuck to my forehead.”

“It's nonverbal: I need love. I need the thing that happens when your brain shuts off and your heart turns on. And I know it's around me somewhere, but I just can't feel it.”

“If you are chronically down, it is a lifelong fight to keep from sinking”

“I sit there in my bed staring at the wall, feeling happy, enjoying the way the wall looks, how pink and how white it is. Pink and white, as far as I’m concerned, have never looked quite so pink and white before.”

“That is all I want in life: for this pain to seem purposeful.”

“And she keeps saying, how can you do this to me?

And i want to scream, what do you mean, how can I do this to you? Aren't we confusing our pronouns here? The question, really, is How could I do this to myself?”

“Very early in my life it was already too late.”

“I am crying over the elusive nature of love.”

“In my case, I was not frightened in the least bit at the thought that I might live because I was certain, quite certain, that I was already dead.”