--- title: John Green on Talking About Mental Health description: It’s not something you 'beat' or 'get past.' canonical: https://time.com/4179609/mental-health-talk/ author: John Green article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-02-04T15:30:10.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T09:01:44.034Z og:title: John Green on Mental Illness: 'There Is Hope' og:description: It’s not something you 'beat' or 'get past' og:url: https://time.com/4179609/mental-health-talk/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcaee879c449cc09a/69887bf4e20a872c1ba8f597/john-green-portrait-marina-waters.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2256 og:image:height: 1269 og:image:alt: John-Green-portrait-Marina-Waters og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: John Green on Mental Illness: 'There Is Hope' twitter:description: It’s not something you 'beat' or 'get past' twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcaee879c449cc09a/69887bf4e20a872c1ba8f597/john-green-portrait-marina-waters.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # John Green on Mental Illness: 'There Is Hope' > Sponsored content. 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Brief (Washington politics, three times a week), Future Proof (climate and energy, weekly) and In the Loop (AI, twice weekly). All are free at time.com/newsletters and together reach more than 1.1 million engaged readers. #### Which TIME newsletter should I subscribe to? It depends on what you follow. For a daily briefing, The Brief. For health, Health Matters. For Washington politics, D.C. Brief. For AI and technology, In the Loop. For climate and energy as a business story, Future Proof. For culture recommendations, Worth Your Time. For how TIME's journalism gets made, Inside TIME. Readers can select any combination at time.com/newsletters. #### Are TIME's newsletters free? Yes. All seven TIME newsletters are free to join at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes TIME's newsletters? TIME journalists write them. Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. by [John Green](https://time.com/author/john-green/) ## John Green Feb 4, 2016 3:30 PM UTC  Courtesy of John Green by [John Green](https://time.com/author/john-green/) ## John Green Feb 4, 2016 3:30 PM UTC Over the years, I’ve had a few extended periods in which I lived with very limited control over my thoughts. I assume that everyone has the occasional intrusive thought; that seems fairly normal to me—at least until I pause to consider it: How is it that you can’t control your thoughts, when to at least some extent you are your thoughts? Regardless of whether you want to follow Descartes all the way down his rabbit hole, he was certainly onto something when he concluded, “I think, therefore I am.” Recently, I had occasion to consider this question with some urgency, as I found myself a passenger in my own consciousness for about a month. I suppose it was a bout of depression, although OCD, depression and anxiety intermingle so thoroughly that it’s hard to sort the one from the other. Regardless, it became impossible to write or to read, and suddenly, I had a newfound appreciation for the phrase “think straight.” It was impossible to think straight because my thinking circled back on itself in a ceaseless spiral. But then I got better. Having been sick before and being in the privileged position of having access to excellent health care, I was surrounded by people who told me my pain would end, that I would not always feel how I felt at my sickest. There is hope, even if getting good treatment is difficult, especially in a health-care system that too often fails to acknowledge the seriousness of mental illness. People get better every day. Of course, they get sick, too. The metaphors we most often employ when discussing disease—that it is an enemy to defeat, or a hurdle to jump and put behind us—don’t really apply to chronic illness. Instead, you live with it. You get better. You get worse. You get better again. Sometimes you’re driving the bus and sometimes you aren’t, but the bus rumbles along regardless. You go on. 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