Support - Recovery Resources
What Is Recovery?
(An exerpt from NAMI NH's publication, Hope and Help)
Until recently, the idea that people with severe mental illness could recover was considered radical by many. But in the last 20 years, too many people with severe mental illness have gotten well, stayed well, and told their stories of how they did it. The possibility of recovery can no longer be denied. Many people can recover completely, and EVERYONE can recover somewhat. Recovery is a concept the “patients” taught their doctors, not the other way around. It is now considered a “mainstream” idea, no longer radical, and one that NAMI NH strongly supports. Major universities are sponsoring serious recovery research, and the federal government is publishing materials on how to manage the recovery process. The New Hampshire Division of Behavioral Health, in its revised statement of purpose in 2000, adopted recovery as its primary mission. More recently the New Freedom Commission Report on Mental Health, commissioned by the President of the United States, advocates for recovery based services. NAMI NH created this publication to help encourage you on your own recovery path.
Recovery is the process of overcoming your illness and improving your sense of your own value and self-worth, the quality of your relationships and community connections, and your overall satisfaction with the person you are and the quality of your life. Some say it’s a lifelong process or journey; others say it’s an outcome or goal. Either way, it involves choosing, setting and achieving a series of intermediate goals that lead you in the direction you want your life to go.
Everyone has a different definition of recovery because everyone’s idea of a “better life” is different. It might involve getting a job, or more education, or finding some more rewarding kind of volunteer work. It might involve becoming less isolated and more connected to the community that is broader than just the “mental health world.” It might involve improving self-esteem, or learning to relax and have fun more easily. It might involve integrating a past traumatic experience so that the feelings connected with it exercise less control over your life in the present. It might involve mastering coping skills that would reduce the need for psychiatric medication. It might mean managing medication, emotional onslaughts, and mood swings. It might involve getting out of a bad relationship or into a good one. It might involve getting a car or a better, safer, more pleasant place to live. Though everyone has a different definition of what a better life would be, there are now enough recovery stories to allow us to make some meaningful generalizations about what recovery involves.
Recovery involves:
HOPE is a prerequisite to recovery. Getting better can only happen if you believe deep down that it’s possible, and can hold on to that belief even when you suffer setbacks.
SETBACKS are part of recovery. Recovery is not a straight line. Change is always risky, and some risks don’t work out well. The trick is to conceive of setbacks as learning experiences, not defeats.
SUPPORT is essential - mutual supportive relationships with people who are committed to helping you recover. Supporters can be family members, friends, health care professionals, or anyone else. It is a very good idea to look for some supporters among people who are themselves in recovery from severe mental illness, who can truthfully say, “I’ve been there and I know how it feels.”
EDUCATION is vital. You must learn everything you can about your illness, the treatments and medicines you are receiving, and what alternatives are available.
SELF-ADVOCACY means knowing what you have a right to demand of other people, treatment professionals and/or government services, and learning appropriate ways to assure that you have these rights met. It means knowing how to get what you need.
COLLABORATIVE TREATMENT is the only kind of mental health care that can support recovery. It requires professionals who listen and respect the wishes and needs of clients, and clients who are educated and able to advocate for their needs.
