Jonathan Rottenberg Quotes

Theories without data are like daydreams.

My training makes me uneasy with a happy mystery.

Though I learned little in my compromised state, I learned enough to make a decision: I was going to understand how mood could overwhelm. I was going to understand depression or die trying.

One reason we're not winning the fight against depression is that our available treatments leave so many in partial recovery limbo.

Rather than assuming weakness or defectiveness, we should acknowledge that getting through depression requires considerable strength. Rather than assuming permanent debility, we should recognize that some depressions are followed by thriving.

As she lay awake, she reminded herself that she was beating the depression; she was winning her life back. She had survived, and now she was going to be better than ever before.

You know what you have to do, you just can't do it", Sara says wearily. "It's like you have bricks on your feet.

The genre of self-help for depression is littered with well-intentioned books that overpraise solutions and raise false hopes. It would be nice to defeat your depression in ten easy steps, but rarely is it so easy. Books that overpraise solutions produce frustrated, disappointed and demoralized readers and damage the credibility of experts.

Just as a stressful life can make you depressed, continuing exposure to stressors maintains depression.

Depressed people don't end up lying in bed because they are undercommitted to goals. They end up lying in bed because they are overcommitted to goals that are failing.