Dorothy Hamill Quotes

I have worked very hard on being aware of my childhood but moving forward and not letting it bring me down emotionally. That is a hard thing - especially when you have children of your own and you remember what happened to you at that age.

All I can say to people who don't think depression is a real thing, or say 'just suck it up and get over it' - they just really have no idea. You have to give people the benefit of the doubt that they're doing the best they can to get through it.

We can give space to someone's depression. We can love them; we can honor - we can just eat some noodles, we can watch some movies, whatever it is. We can just sit and not talk. That's real stuff. It's a real - I don't know if you call it a disorder, a disease, but it's happening, and we don't need to coach people through with ideologies.

If you know someone who’s depressed, please resolve never to ask them why. Depression isn’t a straightforward response to a bad situation; depression just is, like the weather. Try to understand the blackness, lethargy, hopelessness, and loneliness they’re going through. Be there for them when they come through the other side. It’s hard to be a friend to someone who’s depressed, but it is one of the kindest, noblest, and best things you will ever do.

I realise I might pass down an incurable illness to my son, but living based on what might go wrong seems like less and less of a life as I get older. The one thing I can try to control is whether I teach my child to be ruled by anxiety, by fear. That's something that gets passed down, too.

I have not spent years in therapy; I tried therapy in my mid-twenties, and it did not go very well. I just thought, 'This is so not for me. I would rather talk to one of my girlfriends.' I'm not at a point in my life when I'm analyzing too much. I have young children, and I'm just pretty much crazed.

Moms are people, too. Moms make mistakes, too.

I've been the type of father who tries desperately to be perfect but doesn't succeed all the time.

Every experience feeds an actor, and I've learned that depression is all around us.

Until you've had depression I don't think you're qualified to talk about it.

I inherited depression from my mother's side of the family.

Somewhere deep inside me was the will and determination not only to live, but to be a more present mother for my kids, instead of one who was emotionally unavailable because she was in so much pain, as my own mother was.

As parents, we're human beings, too, but sometimes we're not as understanding as we'd like to be.

Most people do surprisingly poorly when dealing with a relative who is hurting, depressed, or anxious - we get defensive and try to solve the problem rather than finding the truth in what the person is saying.

If you have a friend or a family member who's bipolar, or has panic attack disorder, or is depressed, read up on it a little bit so you can get to know where they're coming from.

I used to be good friends with my depression, saying oh I'm so depressed, or life is terrible.

It's like you asked me about the depression thing: you grope towards an understanding of whatever it is your going through, and it's not personal, there are forces in play around you, and you seek to understand them and that way you can go on.

I've been trying to immerse myself in the narratives of other people. I try to not isolate myself as much. It is really hard. People that are sensitive, you just feel too porous sometimes. There's this inertia that sets in, and it's hard to get out of bed. I think knowing that other people go through it is really reassuring.

The biggest advice I can give loved ones who are supporting someone navigating a newly diagnosed mental illness is patience, patience, and patience.

I think that as my kids grow up and hit milestones that spark emotion for myself in my own history, it will always trigger personal feelings from those times - whether good or bad - and I definitely want to develop the tools I need to keep the immediacy of those negative emotions in the past.

New motherhood is such a vulnerable and powerful time, but it's also really hard.

I try not to judge my characters. If I'm looking at it from the outside, I'd say, 'No, she's not really a great mother.' But she wishes she were, and she wants to be, and she still has instincts toward protecting her son and wanting him to be a happy person.

Somebody asked me at one stage, 'Are you depressed?' And I said, 'Are you kidding me? I'm not depressed.' But you know what? I was. I was, but I just didn't realize it, because all these things happen, and you just don't know how to deal with emotions.

Those who are not very good at understanding mental health issues are not going to know what other people are going through in depression. You have to kind of put yourself in somebody else's shoes.

I read '13 Reasons Why' in middle school, and the message of the book stuck with me: to treat people better because you never know what they're going through.