Chrissy Schmitzer

“Even before the boxes appeared, the traditional barriers of privacy had long been collapsing, hers already a society of over-sharers. Maura, like so many others, had posted photo after photo online—of decadent meals, of the view from her office, of weekends at the beach with Nina—each one encouraging people to pry deeper and deeper into others’ lives, to expect a certain degree of transparency. Until, finally, even the act of looking at your string—what should have been the most intimate, the most personal of moments—became just another insight into your life that no longer belonged to you alone.”
― Nikki Erlick, The Measure

“Medicine’s great magic trick is how it convinces us we’re here saving lives when more often what we’re doing is witnessing death. Over time, shock wears thin, empathy recedes, and a human being becomes nothing more than something I carry home in the tread of my right boot. This is my new normal, the resting heart rate of my psyche. It’s my state of mind as I wonder whether this job’s worth it.”
― Kevin Hazzard, A Thousand Naked Strangers: A Paramedic's Wild Ride to the Edge and Back

“For those habituated to high levels of internal stress since early childhood, it is the absence of stress that creates unease, evoking boredom and a sense of meaninglessness. People may become addicted to their own stress hormones, adrenaline and cortisol, Hans Selye observed. To such persons stress feels desirable, while the absence of it feels like something to be avoided.”
― Gabor Maté, When the Body Says No

“Once people start believing that a certain group is out to get them—that immigrants are stealing their jobs, and gay couples are undermining marriage, and feminists are falsely accusing them of rape—it doesn’t take much to get us to turn on each other.”
― Nikki Erlick, The Measure