An Unquiet Mind

by Kay Redfield Jamison

The Chinese believe that before you can conquer a beast you first must make it beautiful.

It is an illness that is biological in its origins, yet one that feels psychological in the experience of it;

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

Decreased sleep is both a symptom of mania and a cause, but I didn’t know that at the time, and it probably would not have made any difference to me if I had.

Psychotherapy is a sanctuary; it is a battleground; it is a place I have been psychotic, neurotic, elated, confused, and despairing beyond belief. But, always, it is where I have believed—or have learned to believe—that I might someday be able to contend with all of this.

Therapy being a sanctuary and a battleground. Interesting paradox.

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.

Love, like life, is much stranger and far more complicated than one is brought up to believe.