Rebecca Traister Quotes

We use work to numb out. We can't turn off our machines because we're afraid we're going to miss something.

We often hear of people breaking down from overwork, but in nine out of ten they are really suffering from worry or anxiety.

My God, I could raise a family of six children and hold down a full-time job with all the energy I expend on depression!

I think my real depressions started when I was about 16 and doing The Patty Duke Show. I would go to bed at about 10 o'clock on a Friday night and not get up again until 6:30 Monday morning.

There are days when I should be writing, and I am so tired that I can't. And the fatigue also affects my emotions, making me not even care about writing. There are days when I wake up so angry I can barely speak, and also days when I am so sad.

I was pretty burned out in '85 and was getting - starting to get into some issues.

The number of stressors has multiplied exponentially: traffic, money, success, work/life balance, the economy, the environment, parenting, family conflict, relationships, disease. As the nature of human life has become far more complicated, our ancient stress response hasn't been able to keep up.

I'm miserable: that's why I have such a bad back, because I'm endlessly stressing out about my career.

There are plenty of brilliant people who are too stressed out to read challenging literary novels.

Men do not die from overwork. They die from dissipation and worry.

More and more of us feel like emergency-room physicians, permanently on call, required to heal ourselves but unable to find the prescription for all the clutter on our desk.

Bipolar disorder, manic depression, depression, black dog, whatever you want to call it, is inherent in our society. It's a product of stress and in my case over-work.

I would rather not work than be a neurotic mess.

Each person's drive to overwork is unique, and doing too much numbs every workaholic's emotions differently. Sometimes overwork numbs depression, sometimes anger, sometimes envy, sometimes sexuality. Or the overworker runs herself ragged in a race for attention.

A day of worry is more exhausting than a week of work.

Stress is a designer ailment that many of the so-called afflicted suffer from with pride.

When it comes to the point where you occasionally look forward to being in prison on the basis that you might be able to spend a day reading a book, the realization dawns that perhaps the situation has become a little more stressful than you would like.

I'm not a workaholic, but I was a bit manic, I have to confess.

The slow rhythm of the body, the insistent rhythm of the wit, were they becoming irreconcilable in modern civilisation? The sedentary life, frustration and irritability; work with the body, fatigue - and peace of mind.

I remember once I read a book on mental illness and there was a nurse that had gotten sick. Do you know what she died from? From worrying about the mental patients not being able to get their food. She became a mental patient.

… a job of infinite stress

I don't get ulcers. I give 'em.

I have probably been very close to a complete breakdown on numerous occasions.

I was losing sight of myself and started to get anxiety and stress. You work at such a pace and you don't have time to sit with yourself and think.

I never feel like I should have any time free.