Every sea to scare the sailor, I have sailed.

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.

Sometimes the storm winds blow so strong a man has no choice but to furl his sails.

And for three weeks I was trapped in my own mind again. But this time, I had weapons. One of them, maybe the most important, was this knowledge: I have been ill before, then well again. Wellness is possible.

Results of two independent factor analyses of the survey responses of more than 2000 English and American citizens parallel these findings (19,33):
- fear and exclusion: persons with severe mental illness should be feared and, therefore, be kept out of most communities;
- authoritarianism: persons with severe mental illness are irresponsible, so life decisions should be made by others;
- benevolence: persons with severe mental illness are childlike and need to be cared for."

World Psychiatry. 2002 Feb; 1(1): 16–20.
PMCID: PMC1489832
Understanding the impact of stigma on people with mental illness
PATRICK W CORRIGAN and AMY C WATSON

But it only takes a doubt. A drop of ink falls into a clear glass of water and clouds the whole thing. So the moment after I realised I wasn't perfectly well was the moment I realised I was still very ill indeed.