Dorothy Rowe > Quotes

“However, when we are depressed, being reminded of other people's suffering only serves to increase our self-hatred.”
― Dorothy Rowe

“When a depressed person shrinks away from your touch it does not mean he is rejecting you. Rather he is protecting you from the foul, destructive evil which he believes is the essence of his being and which he believes can injure you.”
― Dorothy Rowe, Depression

“After all I've done for you' has alienated more children from their parents than any act of parent cruelty.”
― Dorothy Rowe, Depression

“ 'Not spoiling' a child means trying to break that child's spirit. ”
― Dorothy Rowe, Depression

“The problem with growing up fearing and expecting rejection is that you cannot enter into adult relationship in the expectation of happiness.”
― Dorothy Rowe, Depression

“...we can love someone without understanding that person.”
― Dorothy Rowe

“...for if we try to go on protecting them we prevent them from growing up to be ordinary, confident adults, capable of looking after themselves.”
― Dorothy Rowe, Depression

“Depression is suffered by people who see no reason to like themselves at all. Depression is a state of self-hate. It is the horror of feeling oneself inescapably bound within the body of someone you fear, loathe and despise. Depression is a state of mind that inevitably invites paranoia; if you find yourself loathsome, you expect the rest of the world to find you loathsome too. What’s more, you feel you have no business infecting other people’s existence with your unpleasant presence … Because I have this loony belief that I am somehow contagious, and that those who might catch whatever it is hate me anyway, I become hysterically frightened of other people. I ignore the phone and hide if someone knocks at the door. If I have to go to the bank or the shops I will either walk miles the long way round to avoid people I know, or travel to another town where I can be fairly sure of going unrecognised … Many depressives commit suicide, I’m sure, as the last act of unselfishness … I’m convinced that many of the neat, quiet, unexpected suicides are committed by depressives who quite simply wish not to be a nuisance any longer … I find it quite easy when I’m at my lowest to present a logical case for my removal. It would, for instance, be infinitely kinder to my family. Hours are spent working out which would be the least inconvenient moment to lay my head in the gas oven. There never is a convenient moment, of course, because I’ve learnt over the years to crowd my schedule with certain unavoidable commitments … I always make sure I’m permanently in debt because I would feel it rather disgraceful to go leaving other people to pay my bills.”
― Dorothy Rowe, Depression: The Way Out of Your Prison