I was late to understand that chaos and intensity are no subsitute for lasting love, nor are they necessarily an improvement on real life. Normal people are not always boring. On the contrary. Volatility and passion, although often more romantic and enticing, are not intrinsically preferable to a steadiness of experience and feeling about another person.
Kay Redfield JamisonI realized that it was not that I didnโt want to go on without him. I did. It was just that I didnโt know why I wanted to go on
Kay Redfield JamisonLove, like life, is much stranger and far more complicated than one is brought up to believe.
Kay Redfield JamisonNo amount of love can cure madness or unblacken one's dark moods. Love can help, it can make the pain more tolerable, but, always, one is beholden to medication that may or may not always work and may or may not be bearable
Kay Redfield JamisonOthers would say to me, 'It is only temporary, it will pass, you will get over it,' but of course they had no idea how I felt, although they were certain that they did. Over and over and over I would say to myself, If I can't feel, if I can't move, if I can't think, and I can't care, then what conceivable point is there in living?
Kay Redfield JamisonWhen people are suicidal, their thinking is paralyzed, their options appear spare or nonexistent, their mood is despairing, and hopelessness permeates their entire mental domain. The future cannot be separated from the present, and the present is painful beyond solace. โThis is my last experiment,โ wrote a young chemist in his suicide note. โIf there is any eternal torment worse than mine Iโll have to be shown.
Kay Redfield Jamison