Quotes About Recovery

Studies from around the world show that recovery from war—from any trauma—is heavily influenced by the society one belongs to, and there are societies that make that process relatively easy. Modern society does not seem to be one of them.

Northern European societies are among the few where people sleep alone or with a partner in a private room, and that may have significant implications for mental health in general and for PTSD in particular. Virtually all mammals seem to benefit from companionship; even lab rats recover more quickly from trauma if they are caged with other rats rather than alone. In humans, lack of social support has been found to be twice as reliable at predicting PTSD as the severity of the trauma itself.

after war, country after country, century after century. As awkward as it is to say, part of the trauma of war seems to be giving it up. "For the first time in [our] lives… we were in a tribal sort of situation where we could help each other without fear

Communities that have been devastated by natural or man-made disasters almost never lapse into chaos and disorder; if anything, they become more just, more egalitarian, and more deliberately fair to individuals.

PTSD is a disorder of recovery, and if treatment only focuses on identifying symptoms, it pathologizes and alienates vets. But if the focus is on family and community, it puts them in a situation of collective healing.

Why do large-scale disasters produce such mentally healthy conditions?

Recent studies of something called "social resilience" have identified resource sharing and egalitarian wealth distribution as major components of a society's ability to recover from hardship.

He had survived two days in his underwear on the North Atlantic. Later, when asked how long it took him to warm up after his ordeal, he said, without a hint of irony, "Oh, three or four months.

When we recognize the fraud for what it is, we feel incredibly stupid. Something more than our bank accounts is damaged—our egos are damaged. As a result, it's almost impossible for the marketer to regain our trust.

What wound did ever heal but by degrees?

Tonight, he said, we shall get quietly and thoroughly drunk...in memory of all that was lost. And on the morrow, I begin the struggle to win it back.

Five years is a long time to grieve, Llewelyn said at last, and Davydd shook his head. Grief heals, he said. Guilt does not.

You will have to be on your guard, and when your guard slips, you must recover." My fencing master used to say something eerily similar to that. And then she'd add that making a recover was much more difficult than simply doing the thing right the first time.

Some people think I should be over my ex by now — maybe I thought I might have been over him more by now. Maybe I'm half over who he was, but not who I thought he was, and not over the wound, sudden deathblow as if out of nowhere, though it came from the core of our life together.

We can always begin again. No matter what happens, no matter how long its been, no matter how far from our aspirations we may have strayed, we can always always begin again.

When we believe a wounding story, our whole world is diminished.

Healing comes in many ways, and no one formula fits all.

TO RETEACH A THING its loveliness" is the nature of metta. Through lovingkindness, everyone and everything can flower again from within. When we recover knowledge of our own loveliness and that of others, self-blessing happens naturally and beautifully.

Once the economy appeared to be recovering, a powerful public relations campaign was mounted. The New Deal was depicted as the creature of leftist forces bent on transforming the country's economy.

career-interruption event

look around the table: my ex-wife, my ex-girlfriend and me. We aren't a law firm— we're a support group. Somebody will probably name a 12-step program after us.

I'd rather have rabies than be in love. Why? Because at least you can get over rabies with some shots.

I didn't know what to say to her. What do you say to people when they ask how it feels to lose everything? When every planet in your solar system has exploded?

Humor was an antiseptic that cleaned the deepest of personal wounds.