Barbara

“The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it.”
― Terry Pratchett, Diggers

“Characteristic of such affective equivalents is their brevity—manic-depressive cycles, as generally understood, occupy several weeks, and frequently longer. Monthly”
― Oliver Sacks, Migraine

“The human mind is not capable of comprehending or containing this world's agony.' Sidney Grice said, 'or we should all go mad.”
― M.R.C. Kasasian, The Mangle Street Murders

“Du Bois Reymond spoke of “a general feeling of disorder” at the very start of his attacks, and other patients speak, simply, of feeling “unsettled.” In this unsettled state one may feel hot or cold, or both (see, for example, Case 9); bloated and tight, or loose and queasy; a peculiar tension, or languor, or both; there are head pains, or other pains, sundry strains and discomforts, which come and go. Everything comes and goes, nothing is settled, and if one could take a total thermogram, or scan, or inner photograph of the body, one would see vascular beds opening and closing, peristalsis accelerating or stopping, viscera squirming or tightening in spasms, secretions suddenly increasing or lessening—as if the nervous system itself was in a state of indecision.”
― Oliver Sacks, Migraine