Jane Thomas

“For those of us living with severe mental illness, the world is full of cages where we can be locked in.”
― Esmé Weijun Wang, The Collected Schizophrenias: Essays

“...a primary feature of the experience of staying in a psychiatric hospital is that you will not be believed about anything. A corollary to this feature: things will be believed about you that are not at all true.”
― Esmé Weijun Wang, The Collected Schizophrenias: Essays

“Sick people, as it turns out, generally stray into alternative medicine not because they relish the idea of indulging in what others call quackery, but because traditional Western medicine has failed them.”
― Esmé Weijun Wang, The Collected Schizophrenias: Essays

“With such unpleasant associations tied to the schizophrenias, it is no wonder that I cling to the concept of being high-functioning. As in most marginalized groups, there are those who are considered more socially appropriate than others, and who therefore distance themselves from those so-called inappropriate people, in part because being perceived as incapable of success causes a desire to distance oneself from other, similarly marginalized people who are thought to be even less capable of success.”
― Esmé Weijun Wang, The Collected Schizophrenias: Essays