Are you struggling with stress, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), or anxiety? So many American adults experience depression, alcohol, and drug addiction, bipolar disorder, or other mental health issues. Part of maintaining a positive mental state and outlook through your journey is encouraging yourself and finding inspiration along the way. These quotes related to mental health will help you stay in touch with the process and feel good about your journey.
These short statements can be used as daily reminders that you are doing your best while getting through your struggles, or an encouragement to keep going or get started.
Sometimes all you need is a little boost when you feel put down. It can be easy to get discouraged at times, with mental health treatments often taking a longer period of time to work on than just a couple of sessions. It is vital to keep motivation and morale high for yourself, to encourage yourself to keep going to therapy and working hard.
Quotes About Stress and Anxiety
If you are struggling with stress and anxiety, these quotes will help you realize you are not alone and that there are ways to overcome them. Like affirmations, these quotes can help you stay in a positive mindset of realizing that you have taken a courageous step on the path to success despite how you are feeling at the moment.
Do what you can, with what you’ve got, where you are. – Theodore Roosevelt
My anxiety doesn’t come from thinking about the future but from wanting to control it. – Hugh Prather, Notes to Myself
You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step. – Martin Luther King
No need to hurry. No need to sparkle. No need to be anybody but oneself. – Virginia Woolf
Stress is an ignorant state. It believes everything is an emergency. – Natalie Goldberg
I cannot always control what goes on outside. But I can always control what goes on inside. – Wayne Dyer
Worry is my worst enemy… an enemy I unleash upon myself. – Terri Guillemets
Calmness is the cradle of power. – Josiah Gilbert Holland
The great thing, then, in all education, is to make our nervous system our ally instead of our enemy. – William James
It’s not time to worry yet. – Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird
Quotes To Inspire You on Your Path to Improved Mental Health
No matter what your mental health struggles are about, these quotes will keep your head in the game as you work to achieve your goals. These statements will help you remember that while you are going through a long and hard process, there is a light at the end of the tunnel and that you are doing your best every day.
What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality. – Plutarch
You have an individual story to tell. You have a name, a history, a personality. Staying yourself is part of the battle. – Julian Seifter
Your present circumstances don’t determine where you can go; they merely determine where you start. – Nido Qubein
You, yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection. – The Buddha
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. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen. – Elisabeth Kübler-Ross
Every day begins with an act of courage and hope: getting out of bed. – Mason Cooley
Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves. – Henry David Thoreau
The best way out is always through. – Robert Frost
She is a beautiful piece of broken pottery, put back together by her own hands. And a critical world judges her cracks while missing the beauty of how she made herself whole again. – J.M. Storm
It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light. – Aristotle Onassis
Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars. – Kahlil Gibran
There is hope, even when your brain tells you there isn’t. — John Green
I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination. – Jimmy Dean
We cannot be more sensitive to pleasure without being more sensitive to pain. – Alan Watts
Mental health needs a great deal of attention. It’s the final taboo and it needs to be faced and dealt with. — Adam Ant
Quotes To Overcome the Stigma of Mental Health Problems
Unfortunately, mental health has been stigmatized for far too long. Only physical health problems were given attention, and mental illnesses were ignored. With the conversation changing around mental wellbeing, these quotes help fight the stigma surrounding any form of mental illness and support those struggling.
What mental health needs is more sunlight, more candor, and more unashamed conversation. – Glenn Close
The only journey is the journey within. – Rainer Maria Rilke
Anyone can be affected, despite their level of success or their place on the food chain. In fact, there is a good chance you know someone who is struggling with it since nearly 20% of American adults face some form of mental illness in their lifetime. So why aren’t we talking about it? – Kristen Bell
Just because you don’t understand it doesn’t mean it isn’t so. – Lemony Snicket, The Blank Book
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. They should issue medals along with a steady stream of medication. – Carrie Fisher
Healing takes time, and asking for help is a courageous step. – Mariska Hargitay
Mental health…is not a destination, but a process. It’s about how you drive, not where you’re going. – Noam Shpancer, PhD
Anything that’s human is mentionable, and anything that is mentionable can be more manageable. When we can talk about our feelings, they become less overwhelming, less upsetting, and less scary. – Fred Rogers
It doesn’t have to take over your life, it doesn’t have to define you as a person, it’s just important that you ask for help. It’s not a sign of weakness. – Demi Lovato
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
The strongest people are those who win battles we know nothing about. – Unknown
One small crack does not mean that you are broken, it means that you were put to the test and you didn’t fall apart. – Linda Poindexter
My dark days made me stronger. Or maybe I already was strong, and they made me prove it. – Emery Lord
Some of the most comforting words in the universe are “me too.” That moment when you find out that your struggle is also someone else’s struggle, that you’re not alone, and that others have been down the same road. – Unknown
I fight for my health every day in ways most people don’t understand. I’m not lazy. I’m a warrior. – Unknown
Quotes From Psychologists
If you are looking for a little less of an inspirational type quote, and more reassurance or words from a professional, these next statements from psychologists might be what you need.
If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change. – Wayne Dyer
Being able to be your true self is one of the strongest components of good mental health. – Dr. Laura Fogel Mersy
Don’t compare yourself with other people; compare yourself with who you were yesterday. – Jordan Peterson
A strong, positive self-image is the best possible preparation for success. – Joyce Brothers
The first step toward change is awareness. The second is acceptance. – Nathaniel Branden
The more you know yourself, the more patience you have for what you see in others. – Erik Erikson
Well-being cannot exist just in your own head. Well-being is a combination of feeling good as well as actually having meaning, good relationships, and accomplishment. – Martin Seligman
Happiness does not come from doing easy work but from the afterglow of satisfaction that comes after the achievement of a difficult task that demands our best. – Theodore Isaac Ruben
Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes. – Carl Jung
Until you value yourself, you won’t value your time. Until you value your time, you won’t do anything with it. – M. Scott Peck
What happened in the past that was painful has a great deal to do with what we are today, but revisiting this painful past can contribute little or nothing to what we need to do now. – William Glasser
Quotes From Books
These few quotes related to mental health are from books, which can provide you with even more viewpoints to help you through your current mental health state.
Maybe we all have darkness inside of us and some are just better at dealing with it than others. – Jasmine Warga, My Heart, and Other Black Holes
When you come out of the grips of a depression there is an incredible relief, but not one you feel allowed to celebrate. Instead, the feeling of victory is replaced with anxiety that it will happen again, and with shame and vulnerability when you see how your illness affected your family, your work, everything left untouched while you struggled to survive. We come back to life thinner, paler, weaker … but as survivors. Survivors who don’t get pats on the back from coworkers who congratulate them on making it. Survivors who wake to more work than before because their friends and family are exhausted from helping them fight a battle they may not even understand. I hope to one day see a sea of people all wearing silver ribbons as a sign that they understand the secret battle, and as a celebration of the victories made each day as we individually pull ourselves up out of our foxholes to see our scars heal, and to remember what the sun looks like. – Jenny Lawson, Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things
Feelings don’t try to kill you, even the painful ones. Anxiety is a feeling grown too large. A feeling grown aggressive and dangerous. You’re responsible for its consequences, you’re responsible for treating it. But…you’re not responsible for causing it. You’re not morally at fault for it. No more than you would be for a tumor. – Patrick Ness, The Rest of Us Just Live Here
Put Your Mental Health First
The quotes above are from all different perspectives. Find a few that most resonate with you and write them down. You can use these as reminders to yourself that what you are feeling is valid, what you are going through today can be improved, and that you are far from alone in your struggles. It is important to create a sense of community for yourself when working on your mental health, and even if you do not feel you have that support from friends or family, you can remind yourself that you have your therapist and millions of others walking alongside you.
Sources:
The Rest of Us Just Live Here Quotes by Patrick Ness | Good Reads
Furiously Happy Quotes by Jenny Lawson | Good Reads
Setting Mental Health Goals for the New Year | BBR Foundation