“I just let the pain take over, allowing it to numb the pain of being left behind.”

“Anger was a reliable defense, but one that allowed no chance of final victory. Anger was a medicine but never a cure, briefly numbing the pain without extracting the thorn that caused the agony.”

“I was not allowed to think of him. That was something I tried to be very strict about. Of course I slipped; I was only human. But I was getting better, and so the pain was something I could avoid for days at a time now. The trade-off was the never-ending numbness. Between pain and nothing, I'd chosen nothing.”

“In this world, there is a kind of painful progress. Longing for what we've left behind, and dreaming ahead.”

“We cannot selectively numb emotions, when we numb the painful emotions, we also numb the positive emotions.”

“Pain is the enemy. It is a ghost. I will allow it to wash over me, through me, leaving nothing in its wake.”