17+ Shoot The Damn Dog Quotes About Battling Depression

Shoot the Damn Dog is a critically acclaimed memoir, written by Sally Brampton about her fight with depression. The following post contains a collection of the best Shoot The Damn Dog quotes that we found the most touching and relatable.

Depression is a deadly disease. Especially since sufferers are stigmatized in public. It isn’t even considered to be a real disease by people, which only adds to our misery.

‘Shake it off’. That’s what people say. Little do they know how devastating it can be, unless it happens to them.

Shoot The Damn Dog Summary

In this book, Sally has given a candid account of her state of mind during her dark years. She holds nothing back.

Each and every failing she went through in portrayed in stunning and heart-breaking detail.

She also writes about her daughter and personal life. Her failings in her personal life are highlighted as well.

This book only goes to show that there may be people with severe depression hiding among you. People who battle pain. People for whom existence is an enormous challenge, not any magnanimous gift.

Sally’s experiences in rehab highlight the failings of the American health industry It is sad to know that she had to leave rehab because her insurance ran out.

Think about that. Someone with an extremely tough mental state got kicked out of a hospital. And this is a reputed author and editor. What about ordinary people?

Shoot The Damn Dog Quotes

• Someone wisely said, “Hope is all we have left when everything’s gone”. If you’re suffering from depression, don’t give up. Keep fighting as long as you can.

• People look down on suicide victims. They dismiss it as another person who lacked guts to face the world. Little do they know how much pressure and courage it took to take this decision. It’s just heart-breaking to see someone losing a battle with depression.

• People never care about depressed patients, simply because it’s not something they can judge with their eyes. Much like doubting Thomas, they even refuse to acknowledge it as a real condition. And by the time they realize how horribly wrong they were, it’s already too late.

• A laugh that’s too hard, a darkness in the eyes, a sad glance when no one’s looking – All of these are symptoms of being whirled away into depression. Depression eventually consumes you, until there’s nothing more left of you.

• People who’ve never been depressed claim religion is all they need. They think some magical man sitting on a cloud possesses the power to take away your sorrow. We know this ain’t true. When God fails, all you can do is turn to yourself and hope that something will eventually change.

• Depression changes your very state of mind to something else. You become an entirely different person, a hollow husk of what you used to be.

• Depression cannot just be sent away. It stays until it has leched out every ounce of energy from you or until someone pulls you out of it.

• No matter how long you’ve been free of depression, there’s always the possibility of it coming back. Like cancer, once you’ve gotten it, it’ll always be down there, waiting to come back.

• Physical conditions receive all the sympathy, all the support. Yet, when you’re diagnosed with a mental health issue, at best, you’ll find people hurriedly changing the subject. At worst, you find someone who thinks it’s all just a figment of your imagination.

• Most depressives simply go on, only for their friends and family. They can’t bear to see them heartbroken, so they prefer to slog through a miserable existence, for them.

• This perfectly captures why depression is such a deadly disease. It saps you of all your energy and leaves you broken. It’s not easy to help someone who can’t even find a way to reach out themselves. It’s hard. Just hard.

• Depression eventually gets rid of your desire to live. Completely overwhelms any joy you have in your life and shuts out the light so well, you forget you were in anything but the dark before.

• Depression has no reason. It swoops in all of a sudden. No warning. No signs. One moment, you’re out enjoying with your friends, the next moment, you begin spiraling down a black hole of despair.

• Depression does teach you the value of an ordinary life. After all, when you’ve been in hell, the joys of a normal and boring life become more visible to you. You crave to go back to when things were fine and dandy. It lets you appreciate life and all the things that come with it.

• Depression traps you in a lonely place, from which there is no escape for the most. You can try to run far and wide, but it will eventually outpace you if you stop trying.

• It is sad enough that you have to cope with such a trying disease. What makes it even worse is that you have to actively hide your affliction from the world. For fear of being judged, you refuse to let anyone know how broken you are inside or how badly you need someone to help you.

• Many aren’t even aware that they’re depressed. They simply dismiss it off as the occasional blues, until it’s too late for them. Depression is like battling with an invisible enemy. Neither you nor your friends can see it, but it’s there. All you have is yourself to fight it out and make it to the next day.

If You Liked Reading This…

Do share this post with your friends and family. It is vital that we get more people to know about how devastating depression can get.

You can also check out The Loners’ Manifesto Quotes and Tuesdays With Morrie Quotes both of which are remarkable books and contain several relatable life advice and sayings.

Above all, if you have a friend battling depression, lend them an ear and be patient. You never know if you’re the one standing between life and death.