Valerie Plame Quotes

I got well by talking. Death could not get a word in edgewise, grew discouraged, and traveled on.

Trauma is survivable, but often not much more. It kills you while allowing you to still live.

I was in a very deep, dark slump, and I needed to find a way to get myself out of it. I had to force myself back out into life, back out into experiencing things.

I'm a big believer in the idea that while we are the sum of our tears, we are also the product of our choices in how we deal with those tears.

I've had some dark nights of the soul, of course, but giving in to depression would be a sellout, a defeat.

When Byrd came out of there, he had written a lot things while he was in the hospital.

Painful events leave scars, true, but it turns out they're largely erasable. Jill Bolte Taylor, the neuroanatomist who had a stroke that obliterated her memory, described the event as losing '37 years of emotional baggage.'

It's cool to be a part of recovery. This is just who I am, this is what I write about, what I do, and most of my work has been a reflection of what I've been going through in one way or another.

Scientists have demonstrated that dramatic, positive changes can occur in our lives as a direct result of facing an extreme challenge - whether it's coping with a serious illness, daring to quit smoking, or dealing with depression. Researchers call this 'post-traumatic growth.'

I met a woman who went through a very difficult personal crisis, and she was really bed-ridden for a long time, and 'Friends' got her through. I met a woman who had a brain injury while living in Europe, and 'Friends' got her through.

My dad had a series of heart attacks when I was a little girl, and our world was shaped by these huge, traumatic events.

When I first went up to see my editor, I was with my agent, and my editor said, 'Well, what have you been doing all these years?' And my agent said, 'He's been in recovery. From his childhood.'

Any psychologist will tell you that healing comes from honest confrontation with our injury or with our past. Whatever that thing is that has hurt us or traumatized us, until we face it head on, we will have issues moving forward in a healthy way.

Most people somehow look at people in the crisis industry as fixers, but some things can't be fixed by an outside person.

I was able to battle back through depression.

You have to realize that myself and others that have been wrongfully convicted of crimes, we've dealt with the situation. You realize that you're not going to survive in prison or progress as a human being if you allow yourself to continue to hold on to this negative energy.

I want survivors to know that healing is possible.

2014 was a terrible year for me. I got a lot of help from psychiatrists, doctors, and my family, but also from group therapy. I met people from so many different backgrounds, and we were all able to relate to each other. It felt like a real community, and I stole that concept for Gurls Talk.

For me, 2016-17 was hell, and there's no way around it for me. I went through pain, depression, fear, doubt, and all of that was a journey that I was able to write through, and then I wrote when I was coming out of that dark place as well.

Recovery stabilized me; songwriting gave me a purpose.

I'm lucky to be alive. It took three years of therapy to recover but I did it.

It took me a very long time to heal. It was a shock to my system.

I was battling depression, went through a really hard time in my marriage, and I used to cry myself to sleep. I went through years and years of pain and suffering, and finally got help. I feel so much better now, feel like a new person, so now I can be happy about it.

And this is for Colored girls who have considered suicide, but are moving to the ends of their own rainbows.