Symptoms Quotes

“The question is frequently asked: Why does a man become a drug addict?
The answer is that he usually does not intend to become an addict. You don’t wake up one morning and decide to be a drug addict. It takes at least three months’ shooting twice a day to get any habit at all. And you don’t really know what junk sickness is until you have had several habits. It took me almost six months to get my first habit, and then the withdrawal symptoms were mild. I think it no exaggeration to say it takes about a year and several hundred injections to make an addict.
The questions, of course, could be asked: Why did you ever try narcotics? Why did you continue using it long enough to become an addict? You become a narcotics addict because you do not have strong motivations in the other direction. Junk wins by default. I tried it as a matter of curiosity. I drifted along taking shots when I could score. I ended up hooked. Most addicts I have talked to report a similar experience. They did not start using drugs for any reason they can remember. They just drifted along until they got hooked. If you have never been addicted, you can have no clear idea what it means to need junk with the addict’s special need. You don’t decide to be an addict. One morning you wake up sick and you’re an addict. (Junky, Prologue, p. xxxviii)”
― William S. Burroughs, Junky

“This emotion I'm feeling now, this is love, right?"

"I don't know. Is it a longing? Is it a giddy stupid happiness just because you're with me?"

"Yes," she said.

"That's influenza," said Miro. "Watch for nausea or diarrhea within a few hours.”
― Orson Scott Card, Children of the Mind

“It is growing up different. It is extreme hypersensitivity. It is a bottomless pit of feeling you're failing, but three days later, you feel you can do anything, only to end the week where you began. It is not learning from your mistakes. It is distrusting people because you have been hurt enough. It is moments of knowing your pain is self inflicted, followed by blaming the world. It is wanting to listen, but you just can’t anymore because your life has been to full of people that have judged you. It is fighting to be right; so for once in your life someone will respect and hear you for a change. It is a tiring life of endless games with people, in order to seek stimulus. It is a hyper focus, so intense about what bothers you, that you can’t pay attention to anything else, for very long. It is a never-ending routine of forgetting things. It is a boredom and lack of contentment that keeps you running into the arms of anyone that has enough patience to stick around. It wears you out. It wears everyone out. It makes you question God’s plan. You misinterpret everything, and you allow your creative mind to fill the gaps with the same old chains that bind you. It narrows your vision of who you let into your life. It is speaking and acting without thinking. It is disconnecting from the ones you love because your mind has taken you back to what you can’t let go of. It is risk taking, thrill seeking and moodiness that never ends. You hang your hope on “signs” and abandon reason for remedy. It is devotion to the gifts and talents you have been given, that provide temporary relief. It is the latching onto the acceptance of others---like a scared child abandoned on a sidewalk. It is a drive that has no end, and without “focus” it takes you nowhere. It is the deepest anger when someone you love hurts you, and the greatest love when they don't. It is beauty when it has purpose. It is agony when it doesn’t. It is called Attention Deficit Disorder.”
― Shannon L. Alder

“Oh God just look at me now... one night opens words and utters pain... I cannot begin to explain to you... this... I am not here. This is not happening. Oh wait, it is, isn't it?

I am a ghost. I am not here, not really. You see skin and cuts and frailty...these are symptoms, you known, of a ghost. An unclear image with unclear thoughts whispering vague things...

If I told you what was really in my head, you''d never let me leave this place. And I have no desire to spend time in hell while I'm still, in theory, alive.”
― Emily Andrews, The Finer Points of Becoming Machine

“A well-trained mind responded to symptoms.
An ordinary mind reacted after it happened.”
― Toba Beta, Master of Stupidity

“The so-called symptoms of disease are manifestations of an inherent principle of the organism to restore healthy function and to resist offending agents and influences.”
― Herbert M. Shelton, Getting Well

“Whatever else you may think about me," he said gruffly, "I would never play that kind of game with you. The devil knows how you could doubt my attraction to you after our lesson at Baujart's. Or didn't you notice that being near you made me as randy as a prize bull?"
"I noticed," Garrett whispered sharply. "However, the male erection isn't always caused by sexual desire."
His face went blank. "What are you talking about?"
"Spontaneous priapism can be caused by scrotal chafing, traumatic injury to the perineum, a flare-up of gout, an inflamed prostatic duct-" Her list was interrupted as Ransom hauled her against him, front to front.
She was alarmed to feel his entire body shaking. It wasn't until she heard a ragged chuckle near her ear that she realized he was struggling not to laugh.
"Why is that funny?" she asked, her voice muffled against his chest. He didn't reply, couldn't, only shook his head vehemently and continued to wheeze. Nettled, she said, "As a physician, I can assure you there's nothing humorous about involuntary erections."
That nearly sent him into hysterics.
"Holy God," he begged, "no more doctor-talk. Please."
"It wasn't from scrotal chafing," Ransom eventually said, a last tremor of laughter running through his voice. Letting out an unsteady sigh, he nuzzled against the side of her head. "Since we don't seem to be mincing words, I'll tell you what caused it: holding a woman I'd already dreamed about more than I should. Being near you is all it takes to put me in high blood.”
― Lisa Kleypas, Hello Stranger

“Future warns us through current symptoms in nature.”
― Toba Beta, My Ancestor Was an Ancient Astronaut

“What remains in diseases after the crisis is apt to produce relapses.”
― Hippocrates, Aphorisms

“When the traumatic event is the result of an attack by a family member on whom victims depend for economic and other forms of security (as occurs in victims of intrafamilial abuse) victims are prone to respond to assaults with increased dependence and with paralysis in their decision-making processes. Thus, some aspects of how people respond to trauma are quite predictable - but individual, situational and social factors play a major role in the shaping the symptomatology.”
― Marion F. Solomon, Healing Trauma: Attachment, Mind, Body and Brain

“When people are suffering from mental illness, they have symptoms not character flaws.”
― jamie west zumwalt, Beloved Chaos: moving from religion to Love in a red light district

“Sensitive to symptoms could enhance security.”
― Toba Beta, My Ancestor Was an Ancient Astronaut

“Real healthcare occurs outside of the doctor's office and hospitals, not when the patient shows up to make a complaint once their symptoms have developed.”
― Emmanuel Fombu, The Future of Healthcare: Humans and Machines Partnering for Better Outcomes

“Healing is often if not usually caused not by the medication but by the belief with which the patient has left the hospital or pharmacy.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“It’s crucial to look not only at the symptoms, but the causes. This is where psychiatry drops the ball, as it’s the only medical profession that establishes illness on symptoms alone. Such a blind spot opens the door for new maladies — like bipolar disorder, which we never used to see in children...”
― Carol Anne Wright

“Identity alteration is a more general term for the objective behaviors that are manifestations of the assumption of different identities (Steinberg, 1993). It includes not only behaving like a different person but also disremembered behaviors, finding possessions for which one cannot account, hearing voices and carrying on internal or written dialogues between dissociated ego states, spontaneous age regressions to traumatic events, and referring to oneself as "we." Overtly behaving as if one were a different person does not appear to be typical of the clinical presentation of DID...”
― David H. Gleaves

“Medication, surgery, and radiation are the weapons with which conventional medicine foolishly shoots the messengers called symptoms.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“Intolerance to gluten has been understood for thousands of years and one can only wonder why the average time from first symptoms to diagnosis takes a decade in modern corporate medicine.”
― Steven Magee

“The top three symptoms that I observed in high altitude workers were: 1. Forgetfulness & Confusion; 2. Irritability; 3. Fatigue & Apathy.”
― Steven Magee

“I started showing depression symptoms shortly after my very high altitude coworker stated that they were experiencing gender issues.”
― Steven Magee

“If a fall is a symptom, then a stumble is the disease.”
― Vincent Okay Nwachukwu, Weighty 'n' Worthy African Proverbs - Volume 1

“At first, they did not show any of the symptoms that the men displayed. It would not take hold of them for about another hour or two.”
― Jason Medina, The Manhattanville Incident: An Undead Novel

“The central principle in Coherence Therapy is that far more symptoms are produced by emotional learnings than is generally recognized, and learning-driven symptoms exist entirely because they are adaptively and compelling necessary to have, according to at least one of a person's emotional implicit learnings for how to avoid suffering and have safety, well being or justice.”
― Bruce Ecker

“We can make fun of the virus, but we can't make fun of the people infected by the virus.”
― De philosopher DJ Kyos

“Symptoms of Social Media Psycho are that; one who follows and unfollows you.”
― Ehsan Sehgal

“You might be chatting sociably with friends, and suddenly you notice that they're all flapping their hands at at their faces. You're all sitting there like a bunch of chickens - all flapping away. You hardly notice that you're doing it because it's such a habit. All clutching at your clothes to try and flap some cool air in, And all of you are bright red in the face." Sally, 58”
― Caroline Carr, Menopause: The Guide for Real Women

“The very best way that you can help yourself is to develop and sustain a positive attitude. The way you think and feel about everything will make all the difference to your experience.”
― Caroline Carr, Menopause: The Guide for Real Women

“I went to work wearing a suit and odd shoes. One was blue and one was black. I can't believe I did that. I'm so particular - I would never have done that before. - Les, 48”
― Caroline Carr, Menopause: The Guide for Real Women

“I drove through red traffic lights once. I thought red meant 'go', which was dreadful because I know red means 'stop'. - Nora, 50”
― Caroline Carr, Menopause: The Guide for Real Women

“I made a mental note of where I'd parked the car, but when I came out of the precinctI couldn't remember where it was. I pushed a full shopping trolley through acres of busy car park to try to find it, and after 20 minutes I was nearly in tears. Eventually I just stumbled across it, but I don't remember parking there at all. I felt so stupid. What's even worse was that a few weeks later I did exactly the same thing. - Fiona, 56”
― Caroline Carr, Menopause: The Guide for Real Women