Jane Thomas

“Most of the time, I could stuff down the despair far enough that I continued to—pointlessly, in my mind—brush my teeth, sometimes wash my hair in the sink, and report my symptoms to the phantom who claimed to be my doctor.”
― Esmé Weijun Wang, The Collected Schizophrenias: Essays

“Love is never wasted, for its value does not rest on reciprocity.”
― C.S. Lewis

“If I believe that I don’t exist, or that I am dead, does that not impact who I am? Who is this alleged “person” who is a “person living with psychosis,” once the psychosis has set in to the point that there is nothing on the table save acceptance?

When the self has been swallowed by illness, isn’t it cruel to insist on a self that is not illness? Is this why so many people insist on believing in a soul?”
― Esmé Weijun Wang, The Collected Schizophrenias: Essays

“In the language of cancer, people describe a thing that “invades” them so that they can then “battle” the cancer. No one ever says that a person is cancer, or that they have become cancer, but they do say that a person is manic-depressive or schizophrenic, once those illnesses have taken hold.”
― Esmé Weijun Wang, The Collected Schizophrenias: Essays