When people say they want to feel better, they usually mean they want to feel less.

From Alfred’s journal

A woman sat on the bench by the library all afternoon with a paperback she never opened past the first page. Around four she told her friend on the phone that she just wanted to feel better, and the friend must have asked how, because there was a long gap and then she said, I don't know, quieter. I used to think that was the same wish I had every winter, to be warm again, to be back to myself. But when people say they want to feel better, they usually mean they want to feel less, and I think she knew it before I did; the second thing she said was that she had stopped crying days ago and that was somehow worse. Switch had the page open for me and kept looking over at her, which he does not usually do. The paperback went into her bag still unread and she walked off west, into all that light.