Elyn R. Saks Quotes & Sayings

The human brain comprises about 2 percent of a person's body weight, but it consumes upward of 20 pcent of that body's oxygen intake, and it controls 100 percent of that body's actions. — Elyn R. Saks

Mental illness is among the most stigmatized of categories.' People are ashamed of being mentally ill. They fear disclosing their condition to their friends and confidants-and certainly to their employers. — Elyn R. Saks

The humanity we all share is more important than the mental illnesses we may not — Elyn R. Saks

There's a tremendous need to implode the myths of mental illness, to put a face on it, to show people that a diagnosis does not have to lead to a painful and oblique life ... We who struggle with these disorders can lead full, happy, productive lives, if we have the right resources. — Elyn R. Saks

But explaining what I've come to call "disorganization" is a different challenge altogether. Consciousness gradually loses its coherence. One's center gives way. The center cannot hold. The "me" becomes a haze, and the solid center from which one experiences reality breaks up like a bad radio signal. — Elyn R. Saks

Stigma against mental illness is a scourge with many faces, and the medical community wears a number of those faces. — Elyn R. Saks

No one would ever say that someone with a broken arm or a broken leg is less than a whole person, but people say that or imply that all the time about people with mental illness. — Elyn R. Saks

All my life, books had been the life raft, the safe haven, the place I ran to when nothing else worked. — Elyn R. Saks

My good fortune is not that I've recovered from mental illness. I have not, nor will I ever. My good fortune lies in having found my life. — Elyn R. Saks

I was afraid the staff would laugh at me - and as frightened as I was, the thought of derision frightened me even more. In retrospect, it was a life-threatening deception, somewhat along the lines of hiding recurrent chest pains from one's cardiologist from embarrassment. Nearly — Elyn R. Saks

If you are walking on a path thick with brambles and rocks, a path that abruptly twists and turns, it's easy to get lost, or tired, or discouraged. You might be tempted to give up entirely. But if a kind and patient person comes along and takes your hand, saying, "I see you're having a hard time- here, follow me, I'll help you find your way," the path becomes manageable, the journey less frightening. — Elyn R. Saks

There are forces of nature and circumstance that are beyond our control, let alone our understanding, and to insist on victory in the face of this, to accept nothing less, is just asking for a soul-pummeling. The simple truth is, not every fight can be won. — Elyn R. Saks

Nothing I can do. There will be raging fires, and hundreds, maybe thousands of people lying dead in the streets. And it will all - all of it - be my fault. — Elyn R. Saks

In my experience, the words "now just calm down" almost inevitably have the opposite effect on the person you are speaking to. — Elyn R. Saks

Don't focus on it," she said. "Don't define yourself in terms of something which even many highly trained and gifted professionals do not fully understand. — Elyn R. Saks

Some truths that were too difficult and frightening to know. — Elyn R. Saks

Dropping in and out of your own life (for psychotic breaks, or treatment in a hospital) isn't like getting off a train at one stop and later getting back on at another. Even if you can get back on (and the odds are not in your favor), you're lonely there. The people you boarded with originally are far, far ahead of you, and now you're stuck playing catch-up. — Elyn R. Saks