Shannon Baldwin > Shannon's Quotes

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#1

“The so-called ‘psychotically depressed’ person who tries to kill herself doesn’t do so out of quote ‘hopelessness’ or any abstract conviction that life’s assets and debits do not square. And surely not because death seems suddenly appealing. The person in whom Its invisible agony reaches a certain unendurable level will kill herself the same way a trapped person will eventually jump from the window of a burning high-rise. Make no mistake about people who leap from burning windows. Their terror of falling from a great height is still just as great as it would be for you or me standing speculatively at the same window just checking out the view; i.e. the fear of falling remains a constant. The variable here is the other terror, the fire’s flames: when the flames get close enough, falling to death becomes the slightly less terrible of two terrors. It’s not desiring the fall; it’s terror of the flames. And yet nobody down on the sidewalk, looking up and yelling ‘Don’t!’ and ‘Hang on!’, can understand the jump. Not really. You’d have to have personally been trapped and felt flames to really understand a terror way beyond falling.”
― David Foster Wallace

5939 likes

#2

“There are wounds that never show on the body that are deeper and more hurtful than anything that bleeds.”
― Laurell K. Hamilton, Mistral's Kiss

tags: depression, pain, trauma

5257 likes

#3

“Imagine smiling after a slap in the face. Then think of doing it twenty-four hours a day.”
― Markus Zusak, The Book Thief

tags: pain, sadness, stoicism

4154 likes

#4

“Mental pain is less dramatic than physical pain, but it is more common and also more hard to bear. The frequent attempt to conceal mental pain increases the burden: it is easier to say “My tooth is aching” than to say “My heart is broken.”
― C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain

tags: depression, pain

2789 likes

#5

“Compassion hurts. When you feel connected to everything, you also feel responsible for everything. And you cannot turn away. Your destiny is bound with the destinies of others. You must either learn to carry the Universe or be crushed by it. You must grow strong enough to love the world, yet empty enough to sit down at the same table with its worst horrors.”
― Andrew Boyd, Daily Afflictions: The Agony of Being Connected to Everything in the Universe

tags: compassion, destiny, empathy, pain, universe

1300 likes

#6

“Most misunderstandings in the world could be avoided if people would simply take the time to ask, "What else could this mean?”
― Shannon L. Alder

tags: anger, ego, misinterpretation, misunderstand, misunderstandings, overthinking, pain, perception, perspective, questions, reading-into-everything, reading-into-things, second-quessing, self-esteem, self-improvement

1054 likes

#7

“Pain is a pesky part of being human, I've learned it feels like a stab wound to the heart, something I wish we could all do without, in our lives here. Pain is a sudden hurt that can't be escaped. But then I have also learned that because of pain, I can feel the beauty, tenderness, and freedom of healing. Pain feels like a fast stab wound to the heart. But then healing feels like the wind against your face when you are spreading your wings and flying through the air! We may not have wings growing out of our backs, but healing is the closest thing that will give us that wind against our faces.”
― C. JoyBell C.

tags: beauty, experience, flight, flying, freedom, growing, growth, heal, healing, hurt, hurting, inspirational, inspirational-life, inspirational-quotes, inspiring, learning, life, life-and-living, life-lessons, living, living-life, pain, painful, wind, wings, wisdom, wisdom-in-life, wisdom-quotes

2328 likes

#8

“Anything that’s human is mentionable, and anything that is mentionable can be more manageable. When we can talk about our feelings, they become less overwhelming, less upsetting, and less scary. The people we trust with that important talk can help us know that we are not alone.”
― Fred Rogers

tags: communication, fear, friendship, inspirational, trauma, trust

1028 likes

#9

“Traumatized people chronically feel unsafe inside their bodies: The past is alive in the form of gnawing interior discomfort. Their bodies are constantly bombarded by visceral warning signs, and, in an attempt to control these processes, they often become expert at ignoring their gut feelings and in numbing awareness of what is played out inside. They learn to hide from their selves.” (p.97)”
― Bessel A. van der Kolk, The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma

tags: avoidance, body, feelings, numb, numbness, sense-of-safety, trauma, traumatic, traumatized

492 likes

#10

“PTSD is a whole-body tragedy, an integral human event of enormous proportions with massive repercussions.”
― Susan Pease Banitt

tags: emotions, healing, mental-health, post-traumatic-stress-disorder, posttraumatic, posttraumatic-stress-disorder, psychology, ptsd, spirituality, stress, trauma, traumatic-experiences, traumatic-stress, traumatized, yoga

225 likes

#11

“There is no standard normal. Normal is subjective. There are seven billion versions of normal on this planet.”
― Matt Haig, Reasons to Stay Alive

tags: life, mental-health, mental-illness

425 likes

#12

“Feelings don't try to kill you, even the painful ones. Anxiety is a feeling grown too large. A feeling grown aggressive and dangerous. You're responsible for its consequences, you're responsible for treating it. But...you're not responsible for causing it. You're not morally at fault for it. No more than you would be for a tumor.”
― Patrick Ness, The Rest of Us Just Live Here

tags: anxiety, mental-health

374 likes

#13

“The pain of severe depression is quite unimaginable to those who have not suffered it, and it kills in many instances because its anguish can no longer be borne. The prevention of many suicides will continue to be hindered until there is a general awareness of the nature of this pain.”
― William Styron, Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness

tags: anguish, awareness, depressed, depression, mental-health, mental-illness, pain, prevention, psychology, suffering, suicide

244 likes

#14

“Perfectionism is the unparalleled defense for emotionally abandoned children. The existential unattainability of perfection saves the child from giving up, unless or until, scant success forces him to retreat into the depression of a dissociative disorder, or launches him hyperactively into an incipient conduct disorder. Perfectionism also provides a sense of meaning and direction for the powerless and unsupported child. In the guise of self-control, striving to be perfect offers a simulacrum of a sense of control. Self-control is also safer to pursue because abandoning parents typically reserve their severest punishment for children who are vocal about their negligence.”
― Pete Walker

tags: abandonment, abusive-parents, child-abuse, child-neglect, conduct-disorder, defense-mechanism, dissociation, dissociative-disorder, dissociative-identity-disorder, emotional-abuse, emotionally-unavailable, mental-health, mental-illness, perfectionism, powerlessness, psychological-abuse, punishment, self-control, survivors, survivors-of-abuse

173 likes

#15

“Unlike simple stress, trauma changes your view of your life and yourself. It shatters your most basic assumptions about yourself and your world — “Life is good,” “I’m safe,” “People are kind,” “I can trust others,” “The future is likely to be good” — and replaces them with feelings like “The world is dangerous,” “I can’t win,” “I can’t trust other people,” or “There’s no hope.”
― Mark Goulston MD, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder For Dummies

tags: dangerous-world, lack-of-trust, post-traumatic-stress-disorder, posttraumatic-stress-disorder, ptsd, sense-of-self, shattered-souls, stress, trauma, traumatic-stress, work-view

53 likes

#16

“Anything forced is not beautiful”
― Xenophon, The Art of Horsemanship

84 likes

#17

“The attempt to escape from pain, is what creates more pain.”
― Gabor Maté

tags: addiction, bravery, consciousness, courage, denial, dissociation, mindfulness, psychology, repression, self-knowledge, therapy, wellbeing

365 likes

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