David Satcher Quotes

I know how important good mental health care can be because I personally benefited from it.

We need to change the culture of this topic and make it OK to speak about mental health and suicide.

If you look at suicides, most of them are connected to depression. And the mental health system just fails them. It's so sad. We know what to do. We just don't do it.

The mental health conversation is very important to me. I have friends that struggle with various mental illnesses. I've struggled with depression and anxiety. I'm very interested in how we deal with that.

It's okay to talk about mental health issues. It's okay to admit that you have anxiety. It doesn't take away from your power. It's totally normal.

Together with open conversations and greater understanding, we can ensure that attitudes for mental health change and children receive the support they deserve.

There is no health without mental health; mental health is too important to be left to the professionals alone, and mental health is everyone's business.

We live in a world where mental health is real. Emotional health is real, and people feel like no one cares.

It's absolutely crucial that we look at mental health not just through the prism of health but in a cross-cutting way.

You can't fix yourself out of a mental health issue. You can't wake up and say, 'Today I'm not being depressed!' It's a process to get well, but there is recovery.

Where I grew up in Brooklyn, nobody committed suicide. Everyone was too unhappy.

The problem with the stigma around mental health is really about the stories that we tell ourselves as a society. What is normal? That's just a story that we tell ourselves.

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 believe that every human being has mental challenges.

Mental health needs a great deal of attention. It's the final taboo and it needs to be faced and dealt with.

People take the mickey out of mental health, but it is very delicate.

Mental health is often missing from public health debates even though it's critical to wellbeing.

Mental health is seen as a massive drag to have to write about - worthy, dull. Something you should 'have' to read / write about.

We decided to speak publicly about suicide because we wanted to make a difference in other people's lives.

I want to break down some of the stigma associated with mental illness.

I'm a big proponent of having a mental health component go along with whatever the physical realities are.

People with mental health problems are almost never dangerous. In fact, they are more likely to be the victims than the perpetrators. At the same time, mental illness has been the common denominator in one act of mass violence after another.

We're becoming so much better at destigmatizing all sorts of things, including mental illness in 'Silver Linings.'

Abraham Lincoln suffered from depression and yet was a great president. Don’t you think that should help with the stigma of mental illness? We should tell everyone about that.