I’m calling for a cultural change in how we think about addiction. For far too long people have thought about addiction as a character flaw or a moral failing. Vivek Murthy Read Quote
I trained in internal medicine, and I expected most of my time would be spent on diabetes or heart disease or cancer. What I didn’t expect was that so many people I saw would be struggling with loneliness. Vivek Murthy Read Quote
I am a big basketball fan. I have been watching basketball ever since I was a young boy. Vivek Murthy Read Quote
I think that if we want to create a healthier country, we need to empower more people to make changes in their lives. But we also have to empower them to help change their environment. Vivek Murthy Read Quote
I can learn a lot from reading briefing books and talking to experts, but that pales in comparison to what I can learn from going out and talking to people about what they’re actually experiencing and hearing about their ideas. Vivek Murthy Read Quote
I have experienced loneliness at many, many points in my life and felt this profound sense of shame about it – all the years when I was a child that I struggled with feeling lonely when I was scared to go to school and petrified of walking into the elementary school cafeteria because I was worried I wouldn’t have anyone to sit with. Vivek Murthy Read Quote
It’s easy to say that health is all about personal responsibility and we should all make good decisions for ourselves, but the reality is far more complicated. We know that in the case of motor vehicle accidents, how other people drive makes a difference in how safe you are. Vivek Murthy Read Quote
I think sometimes in the focus on deep friendships and on romantic relationships, we can lose sight of how important the small connections we make are with strangers and with people that we may encounter for just a few seconds or a few minutes, whether it’s the barista at our coffee shop or the stranger next to us on the subway. Vivek Murthy Read Quote
If you’re very introverted, you prefer to spend much of your time alone, and when you do connect, you’d rather get together with one or two close friends than face a crowd. Vivek Murthy Read Quote
Without strong communities, we cannot pull together during times of hardship. Our diversity turns from a source of strength to a source of conflict. Vivek Murthy Read Quote
