Ken Wilber Quotes

I'm either mentally ill or Jewish. I can't sometimes tell the difference.

I think the stigma surrounding mental illness and also the stigma surrounding self-esteem issues or insecurities or just even feeling different is something that doesn't really get enough attention. Everybody struggles with feeling alone or that they are going through something they don't quite understand.

It is difficult to write about any form of mental disease, especially your own, without sounding as if you were examining a bug under glass.

There used to be a real me, but I had it surgically removed.

I came out when I was 17. I was in the church; I was crying every Sunday for about a year. I came to terms with the fact with this is who I was - I wasn't going to be able to be a different person. At 17, you feel like a freak already, and so to have that fire and brimstone against your attraction is just screwed up!

After wrestling with myself for six months, I began medical treatment. During that time I started a band with some friends of mine called Jack's Car, but that didn't last.

There are so many cliches associated with mental health - such as the 'fine line between lunacy and genius' - which are, on the whole, a load of rubbish.

I thought it was something peculiar to me. I thought I was abnormal.

We have many cases of men committing suicide rather than face their own individuality. I know of no case of a woman who committed suicide because she was gay.

When someone is denying what they are, then that's when things start to spiral down.

I remember going to a funeral at a very fundamentalist church, and I just had to get out of there. I went out in the parking lot and just sobbed. I think there was a sense of loss of that little boy not knowing if he was right or wrong. Everything I grew up with I had to walk away from.

I used to hate myself for being gay. I couldn't come to terms with it.

There was a time where I was really confused about who I was and what I was doing, and I was just kind of depressed.

I can only be the madman that I've been so long.

I was closeted into my mid-twenties and even into my late twenties. It screwed up my relationships; it screwed up things with my family that I've since repaired.

I'm not trying to erase my culture or my faith, I'm trying to be the best version of myself, and it's really hard. I don't think I'm right, I don't claim to be correct, I'm just trying to figure it out and figure out a balance.

There's such a stigma around mental illness, and this idea that you're going to come off as disturbed or weak somehow by being open about these things. I've never felt embarrassed or shy talking about it; it's such an integral part of my life.

I did a lot of struggling with my identity trying to figure out who the heck I was. I had to face my demons.

I felt very isolated with my identity virtually my entire life, that nobody really got it and that I didn't really have the personal agency to express it.

George was adamant his sexuality should be kept under wraps, which created a wholly unwelcome extra level of stress for him to manage.

My 30s were a nightmare because I was so uncomfortable. If I could have unzipped myself and stepped out of my body, I would have done.

It's OK to have up days. It's OK to have down days. But especially remember it's OK to talk to people and let them know you're not OK. Don't think it's something you have to keep to yourself to fit in or to be normal. There's no such thing as normal.

Anybody who's dealt with addiction and depression knows that sometimes they can make you forget who you are and kind of bring out a different person, somebody you don't know as well.

Most of my world is in London, and I feel like this is where I went mad and ended up finding myself.

I want the public to know how it feels, the fear of being scrutinized, of being outed. The fear of what happens when you come out and the media puts you under a microscope. It's crippling. You get lost.