Barbara Lee Quotes

And I think that it's - the military has actually made improvements, so people are considering post-traumatic stress disorder as, at the least, a possible psychological problem. You know, when I was in Vietnam, it was just considered malingering. And we're making progress.

We do a very good job at fixing broken bodies but not such a great job at healing broken minds with our returning veterans.

Veterans are generally reluctant to seek mental health care.

As a kid, I was scared of losing my mind. In Terrell, Texas, where I grew up, there was a guy that would walk down the street talking to himself. And I used to watch him and feel uneasy. And there was a sanitarium where people would say, 'That's where all the crazy people go.' It really sort of frightened me.

Television has done much for psychiatry by spreading information about it, as well as contributing to the need for it.

A first visit to a madhouse is always a shock.

The strongest predictor of unhappiness is anyone who has had a mental illness in the last 10 years. It is an even stronger predictor of unhappiness than poverty - which also ranks highly.

You can never turn the clock back and, since we're talking about mental health, I would stress that.

Everyone knows someone who is struggling with a mental health issue, whether it's depression, trauma or substance abuse. It affects everyone, so we all have a stake in making sure good treatment is available.

Thousands of our post-9/11 veterans carry the invisible burden of post-traumatic stress, and there is an overwhelming need to expand the available treatment options.

Many people with mental illness suffer in silence, afraid to seek help for fear of victimisation.

Mentally ill people come from all belief systems.

People get really irritated by mental illness.

An asylum for the sane would be empty in America.

One out of four people in this country is mentally unbalanced. Think of your three closes friends; if they seem OK, then you're the one.

Many people think it's in bad taste to advertise for an insane asylum... but come on down. We're going crazy.

One day, I made a remark that I might work with people with mental illness, and somebody in the press heard it, and it was in the paper. And the more I thought about it and found out about it, the more I thought it was just a terrible situation with no attention. And I've been working on it ever since.

The statistics on sanity are that one out of every four Americans is suffering from some form of mental illness. Think of your three best friends. If they're okay, then it's you.

Nothing defines the quality of life in a community more clearly than people who regard themselves, or whom the consensus chooses to regard, as mentally unwell.

Trauma is not the sole province of victims. If that were true, soldiers returning from Afghanistan wouldn't suffer from PTSD.

You know, veterans come home and they may not be bipolar, but after they've been through a war with PTSD or a head injury, their families have a handful when they come home.

Everyone says to you, 'if you play Ophelia, you'll end up crazy,' but we're all somewhere on the spectrum of mental health, and I think that if you approach it that way it's not such an intimidating issue.

Well, I think it's important to stand as an advocate for the mentally ill.

I was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADD/ADHD) and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) as an adult, but I don't remember a time when I didn't have them. Back in the 1960s, when I was growing up, my symptoms didn't have a name, and you didn't go to the doctor to find out.

I'd had episodes before, but I swept them under the carpet. This time, I couldn't do that because everyone knew. I got on with the hard work of getting better and haven't had a blip in almost 10 years.