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“We are Craiglockhart's success stories. Look at us. We don't remember, we don't feel, we don't think - at least beyond the confines of what's needed to do the job. By any proper civilized standard (but what does that mean now?) we are objects of horror. But our nerves are completely steady. And we are still alive.”
― Pat Barker, The Ghost Road

“Life makes us so fragile and anesthetizes us too.”
― Roberto Bolaño, The Savage Detectives

“Hermes gazes up at the stars. 'My dear young cousin, if there's one thing I've learned over the eons, it's that you can't give up on your family, no matter how tempting they make it. It doesn't matter if they hate you, or embarrass you.”
― Rick Riordan, The Sea of Monsters

“The effort to ward off intrusive symptoms, though self-protective in intent, further aggravates the PTSD, for the attempt to avoid reliving the trauma too often results in a narrowing of consciousness, a withdrawal from engagement with others, and an impoverished life.”
― Judith Lewis Herman MD, Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence - From Domestic Abuse to Political Terror