29 Inspiring Mental Health Quotes To Help You Feel Less Alone
You are not alone.
YourTango Even though there are more mental health quotes out there than we can count, mental health is still commonly misunderstood and overlooked.
Because of this, the World Health Organization (WHO) established October 10 as World Mental Health Day, the goal of which is "to raise awareness of mental health issues around the world and to mobilize efforts in support of mental health."
This day helps us to remember that mental health and mental illnesses are just as important as physical health and medical conditions and should be treated as such.
Mental health stigma is a serious problem, and more people than you may think struggle with mental illness to some degree.
Johns Hopkins reports that "an estimated 26% of Americans ages 18 and older — about 1 in 4 adults — suffers from a diagnosable mental disorder in a given year," adding that "Approximately 9.5% of American adults ages 18 and over, will suffer from a depressive illness (major depression, bipolar disorder, or dysthymia) each year."
Sharing mental illness quotes and quotes about mental health is just one small effort that can help people with mental health conditions feel heard and seen.
If you are facing mental health issues, know you are not alone. We've gathered the best mental illness quotes and quotes about mental health to remind you that you never have to struggle in silence.
29 Best Mental Health Quotes
1. "Emotional pain is not something that should be hidden away and never spoken about. There is truth in your pain, there is growth in your pain, but only if it’s first brought out into the open.” — Steve Aitchison
2. “You are so brave and quiet, I forget you are suffering.” — Ernest Hemingway
3. “I am tired of acting as though I have something to hide.” — Kay Redfield Jamison
4. “Beautiful fake smile. All it takes is a beautiful fake smile to hide an injured soul and they will never notice how broken you really are.” — Robin Williams
5. “A diagnosis is burden enough without being burdened by secrecy and shame.” — Jane Pauley
6. “Pretending is draining, especially when you do it for 8 to 10 hours a day.” — Amy Marlow
7. “If you are broken, you do not have to stay broken.” — Selena Gomez
8. “I had people saying ‘It’s all in your head.’ Do you honestly think I want to feel this way?” — Sonia Estrada
9. “I think the saddest people always try their hardest to make people happy because they know what it’s like to feel absolutely worthless.” — Robin Williams
10. “We take care of our dental health. We don’t take care of our mental health ... I think the solution to making this world better is if we would just be healthy mentally.” — Howie Mandel
11. “I think that we’re all mentally ill. Those of us outside the asylums only hide it a little better — and maybe not all that much better after all.” — Stephen King
12. “No one would ever say that someone with a broken arm or a broken leg is less than a whole person, but people say that all the time about people with mental illness.” — Elyn R. Saks
13. “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
14. ”The advice I’d give to somebody that’s silently struggling is, you don’t have to live that way. You don’t have to struggle in silence. You can be un-silent. You can live well with a mental health condition, as long as you open up to somebody about it, because it’s really important you share your experience with people so that you can get the help that you need.” — Demi Lovato
15. “Mental health problems don’t define who you are. They are something you experience. You walk in the rain and you feel the rain, but, importantly, you are not the rain.” — Matt Haig
16. “I understand your pain. Trust me, I do. I’ve seen people go from the darkest moments in their lives to living a happy, fulfilling life. You can do it too. I believe in you. You are not a burden. You will never be a burden.” — Sophie Turner
17. “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 (aka Mr. Rogers)
18. “Many survivors insist they’re not courageous: ‘If I were courageous I would have stopped the abuse.’ ‘If I were courageous, I wouldn’t be scared’… Most of us have it mixed up. You don’t start with courage and then face fear. You become courageous because you face your fear.” ― Laura Davis
19. "To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance.” — Oscar Wilde
20. “There is hope, even when your brain tells you there isn’t.” ― John Green
21. “You look at me and cry; everything hurts. I hold you and whisper: but everything can heal.” ― Rupi Kaur
22. “I found that with depression, one of the most important things you can realize is that you’re not alone. You’re not the first to go through it, you’re not gonna be the last to go through it.” — Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson
23. "The experience I have had is that once you start talking about [experiencing a mental health struggle], you realize that actually you’re part of quite a big club.” — Prince Harry
24. “You don’t have to be positive all the time. It’s perfectly okay to feel sad, angry, annoyed, frustrated, scared and anxious. Having feelings doesn’t make you a negative person. It makes you human.” — Lori Deschene
25. "I think it’s really important to de-stigmatize mental illness in any form. I think there’s a lot of people that are carrying around guilt and shame and baggage for sh** that doesn’t matter. Everybody is going through something, everybody has had something that they’ve had to overcome.” — Mary Lambert
26. "We don't even ask happiness, just a little less pain. Things get bad for all of us, almost continually, and what we do under the constant stress reveals who/what we are. Some people like what you do, some people hate what you do, but most people simply don't give a damn." — Charles Bukowski
27. “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.” — Charles Bukowski
28. “When under the strain of bipolar’s strongest symptoms, we certainly can make selfish decisions, but that doesn’t make us selfish people. In fact, because we have struggled and known such depths of darkness, our compassion runs deeper.” — Lyss Trayers
29. “It is okay to have depression, it is okay to have anxiety and it is okay 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
If you or someone you know are struggling with their mental health please don't suffer in silence. You are not alone — an estimated 970 million people worldwide have a mental health or substance abuse disorder.
SAMHSA’s National Helpline — 1-800-662-HELP (4357) or TTY: 1-800-487-4889 — is a confidential, free, 24-hour-a-day, 365-day-a-year service available in both English and Spanish for individuals and family members facing mental health issues and/or substance use disorders.
Emily Francos is a writer who covers astrology, pop culture and relationship topics.