Love has, at its best, made the inherent sadness of life bearable, and its beauty manifest.
Kay Redfield JamisonThe complexities of what we are given in life are vast and beyond comprehension.
Kay Redfield JamisonNever once, during any of my bouts of depression, had I been inclined or able to pick up a telephone and ask a friend for help. It wasn't in me.
Kay Redfield JamisonLove, like life, is much stranger and far more complicated than one is brought up to believe.
Kay Redfield Jamisonthe intensity, glory, and absolute assuredness if my mind's flight made it very difficult for me to believe once i was better, that the illness was one i should willingly give up....moods are such an essential part of the substance of life, of one's notion of oneself, that even psychotic extremes in mood and behavior somehow can be seen as temporary, even understandable reactions to what life has dealt....even though the depressions that inevitably followed nearly cost me my life.
Kay Redfield JamisonI have often asked myself whether, given the choice, I would choose to have manic-depressive illness. If lithium were not available to me, or didn't work for me, the answer would be a simple no... and it would be an answer laced with terror. But lithium does work for me, and therefore I can afford to pose the question. Strangely enough, I think I would choose to have it. It's complicated.
Kay Redfield Jamison