Depressive Illness Quotes

“A child doesn’t need toughening up. He may seem to be getting tough through a harsh regime, but in fact this strength is an illusion. He is getting weaker and building vulnerabilities for the future. What he needs is lots of love, warmth and cuddles; strength develops through tenderness.”
― Tim Cantopher, Depressive Illness: The Curse of the Strong: Helping Christians Cope with Mental Health Problems

“This job makes people ill. (..) I don't think that anyone who really cares and works hard can stay well in this job. /on job in psychiatry”
― Tim Cantopher, Depressive Illness: The Curse of the Strong: Helping Christians Cope with Mental Health Problems

“Two psychologists reacted to reports emerging from the two state psychiatric hospitals that the staff were mistreating the patients. This couldn't be proven as, whenever anybody official inspected the hospital, the staff were as good as gold. So the psychologists therefore determined to get themselves admitted, incognito, one to each hospital, posing as schizophrenic patients. They decided on the delusions and hallucinations they would simulate in advance and went ahead and got admitted as long-term patients. The plan was that, after 6 months, both of them would emerge at the same time, declare that they were psychologists and present their findings to the world. The trouble was, when the time came, they were both schizophrenic and, as far as I know, remain so to this day.”
― Tim Cantopher, Depressive Illness: The Curse of the Strong: Helping Christians Cope with Mental Health Problems

“It is difficult to induce learned helplessness in an adult who has been consistently brought up. It is possible; it has happened to a few victims who I have seen, of major disasters. They teach apprentice torturers to do it in South American dictatorships. The principle is sometimes to reward your victim and sometimes to visit unspeakable torment upon him, but above all, to make him recognize, over a protracted period, that you are in control and that he is powerless to affect his environment.

But it is easy to do it to a child. All you have to do is fail to be consistent, so that she doesn't learn that she can make things happen.”
― Tim Cantopher, Depressive Illness: The Curse of the Strong: Helping Christians Cope with Mental Health Problems

“A child doesn't need toughening up. He may seem to be getting through a harsh regime, but in fact this strength is an illusion. He is getting weaker and building vulnerabilities for the future. What he needs is lots of love, warmth and cuddles; strength develops through tenderness.”
― Tim Cantopher, Depressive Illness: The Curse of the Strong: Helping Christians Cope with Mental Health Problems

“[Sigmund Freud] was writing a century ago when the standard treatments for severe depression included being chained to a wall and being doused by high-pressure hoses, or being strapped in a revolving chair and spun rapidly for a protracted period. 'Do you feel better now?' 'Yes, yes, just don't do it again please!' Another therapeutic success.”
― Tim Cantopher, Depressive Illness: The Curse of the Strong: Helping Christians Cope with Mental Health Problems