89 Mental Health Quotes (And Sayings) That Prove You're Not Alone

According to the National Alliance of Mental Health, about one in four Americans are living with some sort of mental health condition, with symptoms ranging from mild to severe. But despite those numbers, stigmas surrounding these struggles persist. Below, we've put together a varied list of mental health quotes to prove that you aren't alone in the way you feel. Read on for a few encouraging words from experts in the field and other names you know.

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What Is Mental Health?

The World Health Organization (WHO) defines mental wellness as a "state of mental well-being that enables people to cope with the stresses of life, realize their abilities, learn well and work well, and contribute to their community." Financial, family, and community support are vital to maintaining this headspace. While some issues can be resolved relatively easily and for minimal cost, limited resources and stigmas surrounding mental health prevent an incalculable number of people from seeking help.

Can Quotes Actually Help Improve Mental Health?

All mental health issues can best be resolved with professional help, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't also pursue healing on your own. While reading up inspirational quotes might not seem like the most effective form of treatment, these sayings actually can help lift our spirits and make us feel less alone.

That said, it's important to be mindful of the platforms you use to access this material. Spending hours online—even in pursuit of something positive—can leave us feeling even worse than before. If, however, you approach the task in a more mindful way, you might just walk away with a few new insights and ways to cope.

Inspiring Short Quotes About Mental Health

1. "And still, I rise."  —  Maya Angelou
2. "It's not time to worry yet." — Harper Lee
3. "There is hope, even when your brain tells you there isn't." — John Green
4. "Self-care is how you take your power back." — Lalah Delia
5. "Worry often gives a small thing a big shadow." — Swedish Proverb
6. "The way you tell your story to yourself matters." — Amy Cuddy, PhD
7. "If there is no struggle, there is no progress." — Frederick Douglass
8. "It's not stress that kills us, it is our reaction to it." — Hans Selye
9. "Feelings come and go like clouds in a windy sky. Conscious breathing is my anchor." — Thich Nhat Hanh
10. "Worry in the dark can make it even darker." — Camron Wright

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Mental Health Quotes From Therapists

11. "The humanity we all share is more important than the mental illnesses we may not." ― Elyn R. Saks, PhD
12. "There is no cast, no scar, no stitches. No X-ray with the evidence of pain. Rarely is there physical evidence of mental illness, but for those suffering from pervasive mental illness the pain and exhaustion is deep and heavy." — Emily Sanders, LMFT
13. "Being able to be your true self is one of the strongest components of good mental health." — Lauren Fogel Mersy, PhD
14. "Self-compassion is simply giving the same kindness to ourselves that we would give to others." — Christopher Germer, PhD
15. "Should you shield the valleys from the windstorms, you would never see the beauty of their canyons." — Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, MD
16. "Deep breathing is our nervous system's love language." — Lauren Fogel Mersy, Ph.D
17. "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, MD
18. "No amount of therapy can or self-care can make up for scarcity of food, drink, time, or financial resources." — Whitney Goodman, LMFT
19. "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 or imply that all the time about people with mental illness." — Elyn R. Saks, PhD

Funny Quotes About Mental Health

20. "Sometimes the appropriate response to reality is to go insane." — Philip K. Dick
21. "One of the things that baffles me… is how there can be so much lingering stigma with regards to mental illness, specifically bipolar disorder. In my opinion, living with manic depression takes a tremendous amount of balls… They should issue medals along with the steady stream of medication." — Carrie Fisher
22. "There must be quite a few things that a hot bath won't cure, but I don't know many of them." ― Sylvia Plath
23. "I became insane with long intervals of horrible sanity." — Edgar Allen Poe
24. "Freud: If it's not one thing, it's your mother." — Robin Williams
25. "Before you diagnose yourself with depression or low self-esteem, first make sure that you are not, in fact, just surrounding yourself with a**holes." — William Gibson
26. "We must have a pie. Stress cannot exist in the presence of a pie." — David Mamet
27. "I just give myself permission to suck…I find this hugely liberating." — John Green
28. "I told my psychiatrist that everyone hates me. He said I was being ridiculous—everyone hasn't met me yet." — Rodney Dangerfield
29. "I can sympathize with people's pains but not with their pleasures. There is something curiously boring about somebody else's happiness." — Aldous Huxley

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Inspiring Mental Health Quotes From Famous People

30. "Mental health is something that we all need to talk about, and we need to take the stigma away from it. So let's raise the awareness. Let's let everybody know it's OK to have a mental illness and addiction problem." — Demi Lovato
31. "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 percent of American adults face some form of mental illness in their lifetime. So why aren't we talking about it?" — Kristen Bell
32. "And sometimes I have kept my feelings to myself, because I could find no language to describe them in." — Jane Austen
33. "Being vulnerable is actually a strength and not a weakness—that's why more and more mental health is such an important thing to talk about. It's the same as being physically sick. And when you keep all those things inside, when you bottle them up, it makes you ill." — Cara Delevingne
34. "Mental health affects every aspect of your life. It's not just this neat little issue you can put into a box." — Shannon Purser
35. "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, Duke of Sussex
36. "My recovery from manic depression has been an evolution, not a sudden miracle." — Patty Duke
37. "What mental health needs is more sunlight, more candor, and more unashamed conversation." — Glenn Close
38. "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
39. "I was with someone recently who asked: 'Well, don't you think that if you do too much therapy it will take away your artistic process?' And I told them: 'The biggest lie that we've ever been sold is that we as artists have to stay in pain to create.'" — Katy Perry
40. We would never tell someone with a broken leg that they should stop wallowing and get it together. We don't consider taking medication for an ear infection something to be ashamed of. We shouldn't treat mental health conditions any differently." — Michelle Obama
41. "It's possible to live well, feel well, and also find happiness with bipolar disorder or any other mental illness [you're] struggling with." — Demi Lovato

Good Mental Health Sayings for Instagram

42. "You are deserving of a life free from mental health struggles."
43. "Mental health is just as important as physical health when it comes to overall wellness."
44. "Your mental health matters more than any external validation."
45. "You are not alone in your journey towards better mental health."
46. "Be kind to your mind."
47. "Your mental health journey is unique to you."
48. "You are not weak for struggling with mental health issues."
49. "You are capable of creating a positive mindset and outlook on life."
50. "Forget the gym, I do mental push-ups every day."
51. "Embrace the messiness of your mental health. It's a beautiful part of your story."
52. "You are stronger than you know. Keep fighting, warrior."
53. "Mental health matters. Don't be afraid to ask for help when you need it."
54. "Remember to give yourself grace on the tough days. You're doing the best you can."

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Mental Health Quotes About Depression

55. "Life is like a piano; the white keys represent happiness and the black show sadness. But as you go through life's journey, remember that the black keys also create music." — Ehssan
56. "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. — Jenny Lawson
57. "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
58. "The strongest people are not those who show strength in front of the world but those who fight and win battles that others do not know anything about." — Jonathan Harnisch
59. "A big part of depression is feeling really lonely, even if you're in a room full of a million people." — Lilly Singh
60. "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
61. "Sometimes I just think depression's one way of coping with the world. Like, some people get drunk, some people do drugs, some people get depressed. Because there's so much stuff out there that you have to do something to deal with it." ― Ned Vizzini
62. "I didn't want my picture taken because I was going to cry. I didn't know why I was going to cry, but I knew that if anybody spoke to me or looked at me too closely the tears would fly out of my eyes and the sobs would fly out of my throat and I'd cry for a week." — Sylvia Plath
63. "There are wounds that never show on the body that are deeper and more hurtful than anything that bleeds." ― Laurell K. Hamilton
64. "Depression is being colorblind and constantly told how colorful the world is." — Atticus
65. "I'll never forget how the depression and loneliness felt good and bad at the same time. Still does."― Henry Rollins
66. "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

Mental Health Quotes About Anxiety

67. "Nothing diminishes anxiety faster than action." — Walter Anderson
68. "No amount of anxiety can change the future. No amount of regret can change the past." — Karen Salmansohn
69. "How much pain have cost us the evils which have never happened." — Thomas Jefferson
70. "All stress, anxiety, depression, is caused when we ignore who we are, and start living to please others." — Paulo Coelho
71. "Your mind will answer most questions if you learn to relax and wait for the answer." — William S. Burroughs
72. "Do not anticipate trouble or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight." ― Benjamin Franklin
73. "The best use of creativity is imagination. The worst use of creativity is anxiety." ― Deepak Chopra
74. "Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom." ― Søren Kierkegaard
75. "Nothing in the affairs of men is worthy of great anxiety." — Plato
76. "Stress is an ignorant state. It believes that everything is an emergency. Nothing is that important." — Natalie Goldberg
77. "Just when the caterpillar thought the world was ending, he turned into a butterfly." — Anonymous Proverb
78. "Anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows, but only empties today of its strength." — Charles Spurgeon
79. "There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will." — Epictetus

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Positive Mental Health Quotes About Healing

80. "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
81. "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
82. "Your present circumstances don't determine where you go; they merely determine where you start." — Nido Qubein
83. "Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving." — Albert Einstein
84. "Trust yourself. You've survived a lot, and you'll survive whatever is coming." ― Robert Tew
85. "[Slow breathing] is like an anchor in the midst of an emotional storm: the anchor won't make the storm goes away, but it will hold you steady until it passes. — Russ Harris
86. "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
87. "If you can't fly then run, if you can't run then walk, if you can't walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward." ― Martin Luther King Jr.
88. "I keep moving ahead, as always, knowing deep down inside that I am a good person and that I am worthy of a good life." Jonathan Harnisch
89. "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