Helpful Quotes for Recovery

When you're suffering from mental illness and you're feeling perpetually down, it can be hard to find any sort of positivity or inspiration. And when other people try to cheer you up, they tend to say things that do anything but help. We've all been subject to the following (unhelpful) ways that people try to get you to think positivity. 

"Just smile and be happy, life is great!"

"Choose happiness!"

"Be grateful for all that you have. You have a roof over your head, food on the table, and people that love you. Why are you upset?"

"Just focus on the positives, you're too negative."

"Your life is a privilege, you shouldn't waste it by wallowing in self pity."

"But you're so pretty, how could you be depressed?"

The people who are directing these statements towards you are generally trying to help, but for the most part, it doesn't make things better. If anything, it can make things worse. I was writing to a friend who's inpatient right now, and I put together a list of quotes that I think can be helpful for depression/mental illness. I got a few from Beckie0's video, "Helpful Quotes for Depression," which is below.

So, without further ado, here is my list of quotes to help with depression/mental illness!

“Our wounds are often the openings into the best and most beautiful parts of us.”

-David Richo

“You are beautiful because you let yourself feel, and that is a brave thing indeed.”

-Shinji Moon

“Your present circumstances don’t determine where you can go; they merely determine where you start.”

-Nido Qubein

“To keep the body in good health is a duty, otherwise we shall not be able to keep our mind strong and clear.”

-Buddha

“And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the wind longs to play with your hair.”

-Khalil Gibran

“I actually attack the concept of happiness. The idea that—I don’t mind people being happy—but the idea that everything we do is part of the pursuit of happiness seems to me a really dangerous idea and has led to a contemporary disease in the Western society, which is fear of sadness. It’s a really odd thing that we’re now seeing people saying “write down three things that made you happy before you go to sleep” and “cheer up” and “happiness is our birthright” and so on. We’re kind of teaching out kids that happiness is the default position. It’s rubbish. Wholeness is what we aught to be striving for, and part of that is sadness, disappointment, frustration, failure; all of those things which make us who we are. Happiness and victory and fulfillment are nice little things that also happen to us, but they don’t teach us much. Everyone says we grow through pain, and then as soon as they experience pain they say, “Quick! Move on! Cheer up!” I’d like for just a year to have a moratorium on the word “happiness” and to replace it with the word “wholeness.” Ask yourself, “Is this contributing to my wholeness?” and if you’re having a bad day, it is.”

“Only the weak are cruel. Gentleness can only be expected from the strong.”

-Leo Buscaglia

“I will endure sadness, for it opens my soul.”

-Og Mandino

“Having a soft heart in a hard world is courage, not weakness. Don’t ever let anyone tell you that kindness and gentleness and acceptance is anything less than scandalously brave.”

Love this one:

“Recovery is a conscious choice. It’s not something brought about by repeat hospital visits and pills and forced therapy sessions. Those things only supplement it. But what recovery really is, is a conscious choice to wake up tomorrow and want to live. It’s a choice to drive across a bridge and not want to jump into the water, but to admire the view.”

“Your heart needs to break open from time to time. It’s how we grow as human beings. If you haven’t had your heart broken open by loss and despaire, if you’ve never truly been in pain, if you haven’t walked through fire and back… You haven’t truly lived. You won’t know what it feels like until you’ve walked out into a ledge called Giving Up, wiggled your toes across the brim, looked down at the infinite fall below, and then, very carefully, taken a step back.”

Rachel Brathen

“When we give up dieting, we take back something we were often too young to know we had given away: our own voice. Our ability to make decisions about what to eat and when. Our belief in ourselves. Our right to decide what goes into our mouths. Unlike the diets that appear monthly in magazines, or the thermal pants that sweat off pounds, unlike a lover or a friend or a car, your body is reliable. It doesn’t go away, get lost, stolen. If you listen, it will speak.”

-Geenen Roth

“There is some good in this world, and it’s worth fighting for.”

-J.R.R Tolkein

“Feel the fear, and do it anyway.”

“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you, and not to harm you. Plans to give you hope, and a future.”

Jeremiah 29:11

“So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”

Isaiah 41:10

“The days you are most uncomfortable are the days you learn the most about yourself.”

-Mary Louise Bean

“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”

“Never apologize for showing your feelings. When you do, you are apologizing for the truth.”

-Jose N. Harris

“The great glory in living, lies not in never falling, but rising every time we fall.”

-Nelson Mandela

“It is hard to fail, but it is (even) worse never to have tried to succeed.”

-Theodore Roosevelt

“To the world, you may be one person, but to one person, you may be the world.”

-Dr. Suess

“Letting it get to you. You know what that’s called? Being alive. Best thing there is. Being alive right now is all that counts.”

-Matt Smith as the Doctor

“Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.”

Albus Dumbledore…. I don’t necessarily agree with this quote but it’s Dumbledore so…

“What’s coming will come and we’ll just have to meet it when it does.”

-JK Rowling

“You cannot depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.”

-Mark Twain

“Feet, what do I need you for when I have wings to fly!”

-Frida Kahlo

“I know. It’s all wrong. By rights we shouldn’t even be here. But we are. It’s like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo; the ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn’t want to know the end…because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was, when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines, it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you, that meant something, even if you were to small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folks in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn’t. They kept going. Because they were holding on to something.”

-Lord of the Rings

I absolutely adore that last quote, it's so powerful. It may be from Lord of the Rings, but it is so relevant and there is so much truth in it. "They kept going. Because they were holding on to something." It gives me chills. I think it's such an incredible representation of what recovery is. Anyway, this is my list of my favorite quotes, most of which are relevant to recovery. I'm a bit of a quote addict, so I will probably make a second part to this in the future, because words have such a beautiful power that it's hard to explain. Until then, stay strong, keep fighting, and never give up.