35 Quotes About Mental Illness Recovery

Recovering from a mental illness does not go without its challenges. These quotes about mental illness recovery capture some of the challenges that individual patients experience.

“Be patient and tough; some day this pain will be useful to you.”

“Don’t be ashamed of your story. It will inspire others.”

“Don’t expect everyone to understand your journey, especially if they have never had to walk your path.”

“Don’t judge my path if you haven’t walked my journey.”

“Even if we don’t have the power to choose where we come from, we can still choose where we go from there.”

“Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.”

“I am not afraid of storms for I am learning how to sail my ship.”

“I am still me, no matter my mental health.”

“I believed in my capacity to stand back up and run into the waves again and again, no matter the risk.”

“I have come to realize making yourself happy is most important. Never be ashamed of how you feel. You have the right feel any emotion you want, and do what makes you happy.”

“I lie about being sick sometimes, because people understand if you have a cold, but not if you have depression.”

“I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.”

“If there is no struggle, there is no progress.”

“If you’re going through hell, keep going.”

“Ignore those who say just get over it. Healing is a process.”

“In the middle of winter I at last discovered that there was in me an invincible summer.”

“Never apologize to others for their misunderstanding of who you are.”

“Promise me you’ll always remember — you’re braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.”

“Sometimes you climb out of bed in the morning and you think, I’m not going to make it, but you laugh inside — remembering all the times you’ve felt that way.”

“Start by doing what’s necessary, then do what’s possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.”

“The deepest pain I ever felt was denying my own feelings to make everyone else comfortable.”

“The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths.”

“The most violent element in society is ignorance.”

“The only thing more exhausting than having a mental illness is pretending like you don’t.”

“There’s only us. There’s only this. Forget regret, or life is yours to miss. No other road. No other way, no day but today.”

“Those who suffer from mental illness are stronger than you think. We must fight to go work, care for our families, be there for our friends, and act ‘normal’ while battling unimaginable pain.”

“To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance.”

“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.”

“You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have the right to be here.”

“You are valuable just because you exist. Not because of what you do or what you have done, but simply because you are.”

“You can’t tell just by looking at someone what they are dealing with inside.”

“You cannot recover from anxiety by just staying calm. You cannot recover from depression by just being positive. You cannot recover from anorexia nervosa by just eating more. If mental illnesses were that simple we wouldn’t be struggling in the fist place.”

“You keep a lot to yourself because it’s difficult to find people who understand.”

“Your days are like pages, the chapters unread; you have to keep turning, your book has no end.”

“Your illness is not your identity. Your chemistry is not your character.”

Dealing with the human element when it comes to recovery can make your experience a whole lot different.