/ Source: TODAY
Depression can be an incredibly isolating experience, one that is challenging to fully grasp without experiencing it yourself. A quote about depression, whether brutally honest or hopeful and uplifting, can help explain the disorder and create a sense of understanding.
First, what is depression exactly? A person living with depression can feel sad or hopeless, lose interest in previously enjoyed activities, experience negative changes in sleep or appetite, and struggle to complete tasks, according to Saba Harouni Lurie, a licensed marriage and family therapist and founder of Take Root Therapy.
The disorder can also lead a person to distance themselves from others, engage in negative self-talk, or attempt to act like they don’t experience depression — something that can exacerbate it further. In some instances, individuals living with depression might think about dying, have suicidal ideation or attempt to die by suicide.
It can be challenging to explain to others what you’re experiencing when you are depressed, and there is still a lot of stigma around mental illness.
“While depression may make people feel alone and prompt them to isolate further, sharing your experience with depression, while difficult, can be helpful,” Lurie tells TODAY. “The supportive people in your life want to know what you’re experiencing and want you to be honest with them. This vulnerability can allow for connection, which will not necessarily ‘fix’ the depression but can offer a balm.”
Not sure where to start? Try sharing a quote about depression from one of your favorite celebrities to break the ice. Once in motion, these conversations can create room for other people in your life to share their mental health experiences, providing you both with a safe space.
Whether you’re living with depression and looking for a connection or want to better understand the disorder, there’s a quote for that. Here are the most useful quotes about living with depression, coping with it and getting support — plus a few big names sharing their own experiences.
Before we dive into the quotes, please keep in mind that help is available if you're experiencing depression or struggling with your mental health. Some of the resources to contact:
- National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline: Call 988 or chat online
- National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline (options for deaf and hard of hearing). For TTY Users: Use your preferred relay service or dial 711 then 988
- Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration National Helpline: Call (800) 662-HELP (4357)
- Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741
Quotes about what depression feels like
- “That’s the thing about depression: A human being can survive almost anything, as long as she sees the end in sight. But depression is so insidious, and it compounds daily, that it’s impossible to ever see the end.” ― Elizabeth Wurtzel, “Prozac Nation”
- “There are wounds that never show on the body that are deeper and more hurtful than anything that bleeds.” ― Laurell K. Hamilton, “Mistral’s Kiss”
- “Depression is melancholy minus its charms.” ― Susan Sontag, “Illness as Metaphor”
- “Depression is like a bruise that never goes away. A bruise in your mind. You just got to be careful not to touch it where it hurts. It’s always there, though.” ― Jeffrey Eugenides, “The Marriage Plot”
- “Sometimes, all you can do is lie in bed, and hope to fall asleep before you fall apart.” — William C. Hannan
- “Behind every sweet smile, there is a bitter sadness that no one can ever see and feel.” — Tupac Shakur
- “Sometimes pain is so unmanageable that the idea of spending another day with it seems impossible. Other times pain acts as a compass to help you get through the messier tunnels of growing up. But the pain can only help you find happiness if you can remember it.” ― Adam Silvera, “More Happy Than Not”
- “I don’t want to do anything. I don’t even want to start this day because then I’ll just be expected to finish it.” ― Rainbow Rowell, “Fangirl”
- “As the light begins to intensify, so does my misery, and I wonder how it is possible to hurt so much when nothing is wrong.” ― Tabitha Suzuma, “Forbidden”
- “If someone asks you how you are, you are meant to say fine. You are not meant to say that you cried yourself to sleep last night because you hadn’t spoken to another person for two consecutive days. Fine is what you say.” ― Gail Honeyman, “Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine”
- “Breathing is hard. When you cry so much, it makes you realize that breathing is hard.” ― David Levithan, “Love Is the Higher Law”
- “I saw the world in black and white instead of the vibrant colours and shades I knew existed.” ― Katie McGarry, “Pushing the Limits”
- “They always call depression the blues, but I would have been happy to waken to a periwinkle outlook. Depression to me is urine yellow, washed out, exhausted miles of weak piss.” ― Gillian Flynn, “Sharp Objects”
- “When you’re happy, you enjoy the music but when you’re sad, you understand the lyrics.” ― Frank Ocean
- “Some people feel like they don’t deserve love. They walk away quietly into empty spaces, trying to close the gaps of the past.” ― Jon Krakauer, “Into the Wild”
- “The good times of today are the sad thoughts of tomorrow.” ― Bob Marley
- “The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places.” ― Ernest Hemingway, “A Farewell to Arms”
- “Ring the bells that still can ring. Forget your perfect offering. There is a crack, a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.” — Leonard Cohen, “Anthem”
- “The sun stopped shining for me is all. The whole story is: I am sad. I am sad all the time and the sadness is so heavy that I can’t get away from it. Not ever.” ― Nina LaCour, “Hold Still”
Quotes about coping with depression
- “Depression isn’t a war you win. It’s a battle you fight every day. You never stop, never get to rest. It’s one bloody fray after another.” ― Shaun David Hutchinson, “We Are the Ants”
- “Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.” ― Robert Louis Stevenson
- “What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly.” — Richard Bach, “Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah”
- “I believe that words are strong, that they can overwhelm what we fear when fear seems more awful than life is good.” ― Andrew Solomon, “The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression”
- “Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself.” — Paulo Coelho, “The Alchemist”
- “I was so scared to give up depression, fearing that somehow the worst part of me was actually all of me.” ― Elizabeth Wurtzel, “Prozac Nation”
- “Heavy hearts, like heavy clouds in the sky, are best relieved by the letting of a little water.” ― Christopher Morley
- “There is hope, even when your brain tells you there isn’t.” ― John Green
- “Good humor is a tonic for mind and body. It is the best antidote for anxiety and depression. It is a business asset. It attracts and keeps friends. It lightens human burdens. It is the direct route to serenity and contentment.” ― Grenville Kleiser
- “Maybe it’s not about having a beautiful day, but about finding beautiful moments. Maybe a whole day is just too much to ask. I could choose to believe that in every day, in all things, no matter how dark and ugly, there are shards of beauty if I look for them.” ― Anna White, “Mended: Thoughts on Life, Love, and Leaps of Faith”
- “In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life. It goes on.” ― Robert Frost
- “We must understand that sadness is an ocean, and sometimes we drown, while other days we are forced to swim.” ― R.M. Drake
- “It will never rain roses: When we want to have more roses, we must plant more roses.” ― George Eliot
- “Depression, suffering and anger are all part of being human.” — Janet Fitch
- “I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning how to sail my ship.” ― Louisa May Alcott, “Little Women”
- “The walls we build around us to keep sadness out also keep out the joy.” — Jim Rohn
- “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” ― James Baldwin
- “I will be stronger than my sadness.” ― Jasmine Warga, “My Heart and Other Black Holes”
- “Man is fond of counting his troubles, but he does not count his joys. If he counted them up as he ought to, he would see that every lot has enough happiness provided for it.” ― Fyodor Dostoevsky
- "You cannot protect yourself from sadness without protecting yourself from happiness.” ― Jonathan Safran Foer, “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close”
- “Don’t try to solve serious matters in the middle of the night.” ― Philip K. Dick
- “There are moments when I wish I could roll back the clock and take all the sadness away, but I have a feeling that if I did, the joy would be gone as well. So I take the memories as they come, accepting them all, letting them guide me whenever I can.” ― Nicholas Sparks, “Dear John”
- “Deep breathing is our nervous system’s love language.” — Dr. Lauren Fogel Mersy
Quotes from famous people with depression
- “I found that with depression, one of the most important things you could realize is that you’re not alone.” — Dwayne Johnson
- “People who have never dealt with depression think it’s just being sad or being in a bad mood. That’s not what depression is for me; it’s falling into a state of grayness and numbness.” ― Dan Reynolds
- “Every life has a measure of sorrow, and sometimes this is what awakens us.” ― Steven Tyler
- “I would cry and cry and cry. Just have to change and put on clothes, I said, ‘I can’t do this. I can’t go outside. I have nothing that I want to do.’” — Sophie Turner
- “I tell myself, ‘You’ve been through so much, you’ve endured so much, time will allow me to heal, and soon this will be just another memory that made me the strong woman, athlete and mother I am today.’” — Serena Williams
- “I didn’t know where to put myself.” — Angelina Jolie
- “It’s my mission to share this with the world and to let them know that there is life on the other side of those dark times that seem so hopeless and helpless. I want to show the world that there is life — surprising, wonderful and unexpected life after diagnosis.” — Demi Lovato
- “If you have been brutally broken but still have the courage to be gentle to other living beings, then you’re a badass with a heart of an angel.” — Keanu Reeves
- “I disliked myself so intensely. It was just a mindset. I didn’t know how to love myself. I didn’t know how to love anybody.” — Anne Hathaway
- “A big part of depression is feeling really lonely, even if you’re in a room full of a million people.” — Lilly Singh
- “The hardest thing about depression is that it is addictive. It begins to feel uncomfortable not to be depressed. You feel guilty for feeling happy.” ― Pete Wentz
- “It’s more of an issue than people really want to talk about. Because people don’t know how to talk about being depressed — that it’s totally OK to feel sad.” — Miley Cyrus
- “Depression on my left, Loneliness on my right. They don’t need to show me their badges. I know these guys very well.” ― Elizabeth Gilbert
- “It was like my perspective of the world changed about three degrees, and everything I saw was different.” — Sarah Silverman
- “I didn’t eat. I stayed in my room. I was in a really bad place in life, going through that lonely period: ‘Who am I? Who are my friends?’” — Beyoncé
- “It is OK to have depression, it is OK to have anxiety and it is OK to have an adjustment disorder. We need to improve the conversation. We all have mental health in the same way we all have physical health.” — Prince Harry
- “Every human walks around with a certain kind of sadness. They may not wear it on their sleeves, but it’s there if you look deep.” ― Taraji P. Henson
- “Depression doesn’t take away your talents — it just makes them harder to find.” — Lady Gaga
- “Asking for help is the first step. You are more precious to this world than you’ll ever know.” — Lili Reinhart
- “Depression was my life for five years straight.” — Selena Gomez
- “I felt like I didn’t want to be alive anymore, and I felt for me that I was causing a lot of stress and issues for other people around me, so I thought the best thing for me to do was just leave.” — Michael Phelps
- “I just accepted depression as something that’s part of my anatomy; it’s part of my chemistry, it’s part of my biology.” — Gabourey Sidibe
- “There’s something dark within me I cannot shake.” — Cara Delevingne
- “I always like walking in the rain so no one can see me crying.” ― Charlie Chaplin
- “In my opinion, living with manic depression takes a tremendous amount of balls. Not unlike a tour of Afghanistan (though the bombs and bullets, in this case, come from the inside). At times, being bipolar can be an all-consuming challenge, requiring a lot of stamina and even more courage, so if you’re living with this illness and functioning at all, it’s something to be proud of, not ashamed of.” — Carrie Fisher, “Wishful Thinking”
- “When you’re surrounded by all these people, it can be lonelier than when you’re by yourself. You can be in a huge crowd, but if you don’t feel like you can trust anyone or talk to anybody, you feel like you’re really alone.” ― Fiona Apple
- “I’m very available to depression. I can slip in and out of it quite easily. It started when my granddad died, when I was about 10, and while I never had a suicidal thought, I have been in therapy, lots.” — Adele
- “I just want these kids to know that the depth that they feel as human beings is normal. We were born that way.” — Lady Gaga
- “Songs about being depressed or suicidal or completely just against yourself — some adults think that’s bad, but I feel that seeing that someone else feels just as horrible as you do is a comfort. It’s a good feeling. It’s someone to scream with.” — Billie Eilish
- “Its debilitation was all-consuming, and it shut down my mental circuit board. I felt worthless, like I had nothing to offer, like I was a failure. Now, after seeking help, I can see that those thoughts, of course, couldn’t have been more wrong.” — Kristen Bell
- “I had to go through several therapists that I felt comfortable talking to, or that I felt was moving me forward and that I was making some progress with, and that takes time.” — Taraji P. Henson
Supportive quotes about depression
- “You say you’re ‘depressed’ — all I see is resilience. You are allowed to feel messed up and inside out. It doesn’t mean you’re defective — it just means you’re human.” ― David Mitchell, “Cloud Atlas”
- “My dark days made me strong. Or maybe I already was strong, and they made me prove it.” ― Emery Lord, “When We Collided”
- “And I urge you to please notice when you are happy, and exclaim or murmur or think at some point, ‘If this isn’t nice, I don’t know what is.” ― Kurt Vonnegut Jr., “A Man Without a Country”
- “Vulnerability sounds like truth and feels like courage. Truth and courage aren’t always comfortable, but they’re never weakness.” — Brené Brown
- “There is no standard normal. Normal is subjective. There are seven billion versions of normal on this planet.” ― Matt Haig, “Reasons to Stay Alive”
- “Never give up on someone with a mental illness. When 'I' is replaced by 'We,' illness becomes wellness.” ― Shannon L. Alder
- “If we start being honest about our pain, our anger and our shortcomings instead of pretending they don’t exist, then maybe we’ll leave the world a better place than we found it.” — Russell Wilson
- “Take a shower, wash off the day. Drink a glass of water. Make the room dark. Lie down and close your eyes. Notice the silence. Notice your heart. Still beating. Still fighting. You made it, after all. You made it, another day. And you can make it one more. You’re doing just fine.” ― Charlotte Eriksson, “You’re Doing Just Fine”
- “In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.” ― Albert Camus
- “Life’s under no obligation to give us what we expect. We take what we get and are thankful it’s no worse than it is.” ― Margaret Mitchell, “Gone with the Wind”
- “Even for me life had its gleams of sunshine.” — Charlotte Brontë, “Jane Eyre”
- “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.” — Stephen Fry
- “Even if we don’t have the power to choose where we come from, we can still choose where we go from there.” — Stephen Chbosky, “The Perks of Being a Wallflower”
- “Just because you don’t understand it doesn’t mean it isn’t so.” ― Lemony Snicket, “The Blank Book”
- “People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within.” ― Elisabeth Kübler-Ross
- “You are not your illness. You have an individual story to tell. You have a name, a history, a personality. Staying yourself is part of the battle.” ― Julian Seifter
- “Every man has his secret sorrows which the world knows not; and often times we call a man cold when he is only sad.” ― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
- “And still, I rise.” — Maya Angelou
- “We are not our trauma. We are not our brain chemistry. That’s part of who we are, but we’re so much more than that.” ― Sam J. Miller, “Destroy All Monsters”
- “This feeling will pass. The fear is real but the danger is not.” ― Cammie McGovern, “Say What You Will”
- “Believe in yourself and all that you are. Know that there is something inside you that is greater than any obstacle.” ― Christian D. Larson
- “There is no point treating a depressed person as though she were just feeling sad, saying, ‘There now, hang on, you’ll get over it.’ Sadness is more or less like a head cold — with patience, it passes. Depression is like cancer.” ― Barbara Kingsolver, “The Bean Trees”
- “Your now is not your forever.” ― John Green, “Turtles All the Way Down”
- “There is no normal life that is free of pain. It’s the very wrestling with our problems that can be the impetus for our growth.” ― Fred Rogers, “The World According to Mister Rogers: Important Things to Remember”
- “Be dedicated to change the way in which people see mental illness, at all levels of society. If not for yourself, advocate for those who are struggling in silence.” ― Germany Kent
- "Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it.” ― Helen Keller
