Recovery is a process and a goal. It is learning to successfully manage mental illness, having control over symptoms and having quality of life.
Recovery is about getting on with life in spite of having a mental illness. It can be described as a journey rather than any point in time.
There are many factors that affect your health and wellbeing, and contribute to your recovery. A few of these are:
- Safe and stable housing
- Relationships
- Income
- Employment
- Self-esteem
- Peer recognition
- Physical activity
Recovery does not require you to experience reduced symptoms and reduced need for medical and social care. Recovery is about you experiencing an improved quality of life and higher levels of functioning despite the illness (http://www.enotalone.com).
The recovery journey
Recovery is not a cure. It is a journey. There is no timeline. It is living life to the fullest despite challenges.
Recovery is a journey and a destination – it is learning to successfully manage mental illness, having control over symptoms and having a quality of life. It involves overcoming the negative impact of mental illness despite its continued presence. It can be described as a way of living in order to make the most out of life. Just as each person is unique, so too will their recovery journey be unique.
With new treatments and a better understanding of mental illness, the majority of people living with mental illness will experience significant recovery.
In recovery, people reclaim their sense of self, their connectedness to others, their power over their own lives, the roles they value, their hope for themselves. (Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation).
A person with mental illness can recover even though the illness is not ‘cured’.
Recovery is a way of living a satisfying, hopeful and contributing life even with limitations caused by the illness. Recovery involves the development of new meaning and purpose in one’s life as one grows beyond the catastrophic effects of mental illness (Psychiatric Rehabilitation, 2nd edition, W. A. Anthony et. al., 2002).
The recovery journey often happens in phases. At first, your family member may be in shock, denying that anything has changed or happened. She may go through grief, despair and depression, as the meaning of her situation sinks in. Over time, this often gives way to anger and then acceptance. Finally, your family member may develop a sense of hope, coping and empowerment as her recovery strengthens.
“Recovery is a journey that helps us gain some control over our lives and our illness – by finding our own way to deal with it. Recovery includes hope, encouragement and support. It is also about being honest and learning to take responsibility for yourself.”
Part of the recovery journey involves working with a care team and sticking to a care plan that addresses the person’s life, not only the person’s illness. It also involves reviewing the plan to be sure it is helping your family member through her journey. Care plans should be revised if something isn’t working. Encourage your family member to become an active partner with her care team and to manage her care plan. This can’t be stressed enough. If a person plays an active role in developing her care plan, it will contain the elements that she knows she needs to recover. She will have a sense of ownership of the plan and will be more likely to follow it. The more your family member learns about her illness and treatment options, the better able she will be to make decisions about her health and well-being.
Supportive families are central to their family member’s recovery. While your family member may be all too aware of the trauma of mental illness, you may minimize the fact that you have suffered too. As your family member gets better, you celebrate. But you may, yourself, need to recover. Having a family member living with mental illness can sometimes mean months or years of frantic worry, terror of suicide attempts, trips to the emergency room and financial burdens. You may have endured seeing your family member homeless. It is important for you to recognize that you may need to take a recovery journey of your own.
““Recovery has given me hope for a future I can create myself”
“I now exist beyond the diagnosis of a mental illness – I’m living well again.”
For people living with mental illness who are severely ill and struggle with delusions or hallucinations, recovery may have to begin with the tiniest of steps. For a time, supportive family members and others may lead recovery planning because their family member is simply too ill to make choices. Here, the contribution of recovery is that it provides hope. Even those who have the most severe forms of mental illness can do better. The most important part of their recovery is to be surrounded by people who believe in them and in their future.
Factors that promote recovery
- strong social support networks
- stable living conditions
- safe and structured environment
- sense of purpose or direction, feeling of contributing to society
- someone to discuss experiences and feelings with and provide practical help
- a good understanding of what has happened
- physical well-being
- effective medication without distressing side effects
- sense of realistic expectation and hope about the future
Tips for families
- Acknowledge and applaud all accomplishments, even those you consider to be very small
- Believe your family member will experience recovery and encourage your family member to believe as well
- Encourage your family member’s efforts to try new things or do things differently than she did before mental illness
- Encourage your family member to make choices and decisions
- Recognize that recovery is individual. How far and how quickly people experience recovery varies widely
- Be patient; the recovery journey may be long and there will often be setbacks
Resources to help:
http://www.heretohelp.bc.ca
An online community and resource for people living with mental illness and their families.
http://www.selfhelpconnection.ca
Besides helping people connect with a self-help group for support, they also have, through their Consumer Initiative Centre, many programs that are recovery based for persons living with a mental illness.
http://www.nnmh.ca
This site offers the Lexicon of Recovery: Defining the language of self-directed citizenship, a document written by people living with mental illness. It explores the definitions and struggles of recovery.
http://www.mentalhealthrecovery.com
This U.S.-based site provides information on recovery and links to many online and printed resources.
Adapted from: Living with Mental Illness: A Guide for Family and Friends. Halifax, NS: Capital District Health Authority; 2008
Canadian Collaborative Mental Health Initiative. Working together towards recovery: Consumers, families, caregivers and providers. Mississauga, ON: Canadian Collaborative Mental Health Initiative; February 2006. Available at: http://www.ccmhi.ca
Recovery is a process and a goal. It is learning to successfully manage mental illness, having control over symptoms and having quality of life.
Recovery is about getting on with life in spite of having a mental illness. It can be described as a journey rather than any point in time.
There are many factors that affect your health and wellbeing, and contribute to your recovery. A few of these are:
- Safe and stable housing
- Relationships
- Income
- Employment
- Self-esteem
- Peer recognition
- Physical activity
Recovery does not require you to experience reduced symptoms and reduced need for medical and social care. Recovery is about you experiencing an improved quality of life and higher levels of functioning despite the illness (http://www.enotalone.com).
The recovery journey
Recovery is not a cure. It is a journey. There is no timeline. It is living life to the fullest despite challenges.
Recovery is a journey and a destination – it is learning to successfully manage mental illness, having control over symptoms and having a quality of life. It involves overcoming the negative impact of mental illness despite its continued presence. It can be described as a way of living in order to make the most out of life. Just as each person is unique, so too will their recovery journey be unique.
With new treatments and a better understanding of mental illness, the majority of people living with mental illness will experience significant recovery.
In recovery, people reclaim their sense of self, their connectedness to others, their power over their own lives, the roles they value, their hope for themselves. (Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation).
A person with mental illness can recover even though the illness is not ‘cured’.
Recovery is a way of living a satisfying, hopeful and contributing life even with limitations caused by the illness. Recovery involves the development of new meaning and purpose in one’s life as one grows beyond the catastrophic effects of mental illness (Psychiatric Rehabilitation, 2nd edition, W. A. Anthony et. al., 2002).
The recovery journey often happens in phases. At first, your family member may be in shock, denying that anything has changed or happened. She may go through grief, despair and depression, as the meaning of her situation sinks in. Over time, this often gives way to anger and then acceptance. Finally, your family member may develop a sense of hope, coping and empowerment as her recovery strengthens.
“Recovery is a journey that helps us gain some control over our lives and our illness – by finding our own way to deal with it. Recovery includes hope, encouragement and support. It is also about being honest and learning to take responsibility for yourself.”
Part of the recovery journey involves working with a care team and sticking to a care plan that addresses the person’s life, not only the person’s illness. It also involves reviewing the plan to be sure it is helping your family member through her journey. Care plans should be revised if something isn’t working. Encourage your family member to become an active partner with her care team and to manage her care plan. This can’t be stressed enough. If a person plays an active role in developing her care plan, it will contain the elements that she knows she needs to recover. She will have a sense of ownership of the plan and will be more likely to follow it. The more your family member learns about her illness and treatment options, the better able she will be to make decisions about her health and well-being.
Supportive families are central to their family member’s recovery. While your family member may be all too aware of the trauma of mental illness, you may minimize the fact that you have suffered too. As your family member gets better, you celebrate. But you may, yourself, need to recover. Having a family member living with mental illness can sometimes mean months or years of frantic worry, terror of suicide attempts, trips to the emergency room and financial burdens. You may have endured seeing your family member homeless. It is important for you to recognize that you may need to take a recovery journey of your own.
““Recovery has given me hope for a future I can create myself”
“I now exist beyond the diagnosis of a mental illness – I’m living well again.”
For people living with mental illness who are severely ill and struggle with delusions or hallucinations, recovery may have to begin with the tiniest of steps. For a time, supportive family members and others may lead recovery planning because their family member is simply too ill to make choices. Here, the contribution of recovery is that it provides hope. Even those who have the most severe forms of mental illness can do better. The most important part of their recovery is to be surrounded by people who believe in them and in their future.
Factors that promote recovery
- strong social support networks
- stable living conditions
- safe and structured environment
- sense of purpose or direction, feeling of contributing to society
- someone to discuss experiences and feelings with and provide practical help
- a good understanding of what has happened
- physical well-being
- effective medication without distressing side effects
- sense of realistic expectation and hope about the future
Tips for families
- Acknowledge and applaud all accomplishments, even those you consider to be very small
- Believe your family member will experience recovery and encourage your family member to believe as well
- Encourage your family member’s efforts to try new things or do things differently than she did before mental illness
- Encourage your family member to make choices and decisions
- Recognize that recovery is individual. How far and how quickly people experience recovery varies widely
- Be patient; the recovery journey may be long and there will often be setbacks
Resources to help:
http://www.heretohelp.bc.ca
An online community and resource for people living with mental illness and their families.
http://www.selfhelpconnection.ca
Besides helping people connect with a self-help group for support, they also have, through their Consumer Initiative Centre, many programs that are recovery based for persons living with a mental illness.
http://www.nnmh.ca
This site offers the Lexicon of Recovery: Defining the language of self-directed citizenship, a document written by people living with mental illness. It explores the definitions and struggles of recovery.
http://www.mentalhealthrecovery.com
This U.S.-based site provides information on recovery and links to many online and printed resources.
Adapted from: Living with Mental Illness: A Guide for Family and Friends. Halifax, NS: Capital District Health Authority; 2008
Canadian Collaborative Mental Health Initiative. Working together towards recovery: Consumers, families, caregivers and providers. Mississauga, ON: Canadian Collaborative Mental Health Initiative; February 2006. Available at: http://www.ccmhi.ca