What does recovery look like for you?

I know this is an older thread. But I would like to add to the pot.

Recovery for me in a perfect world would be to be asymptomatic.

This not being a perfect world Recovery in my case and mine alone would be to be able to improve the quality of the life I live.

That is also the Recovery Model definiton or near enough.

I wish to return to work for two reasons. The first is to be distracted from the constant stuggle with symptoms.

The send is about where I wish to work.

I became mentally ill at a very young age. But the lack of ability to control did'nt hit hard until my early thirties. I am mentally ill because a psychopath who adopted me hurt me for their own enjoyment for well over a decade. This was formative stuff. I became ill not because of genetics but because my brain was malformed by experience. This is hard to live with because there is no sense to it. No reason.

The only way I can find a level of acceptance with this lack of reason is to try and find a way to make the experience that formed me, and the illness itself somehow worthwhile.

I was a youth for many years and I was good at it. NAturally, intuitively.

I believe that finding a suitable starting positon working in the MH sector will provide for me that sense of reason and make the experience of my life worthwhile.

This is my interpretation of recovery.

Doing good out of a bad experience. Of course I've taken certifcate courses in community services and mental health so I am aware and able to work in current models.

I think though that generally for MI sufferers recovery is not about working a job. It's simply finding a way to live with an ongoing illness that affects every part of one's life. Not merely surviving day to day as many do, but to be able life a rich and full life. Whatever that might mean.

That is recovery.

kristin, firstly you have to define recovery, is it temporary, or complete. If it complete it may only be for a short time, as in cancer there is a thing called remission, that can be months or years. It is also like a lot of physical injuries once it heals is that the end or can it recur, there are just too many variables for anyone to say an MI sufferer has recovered, recovered for full time re-employment, resume an earlier existance . I won't go one on and be a bore but I hope you can get the gist of my post. "How long is a piece of string" quote from some dumb space tv show, "That's life Jim, but not as we know it ."

loopy

Sandy just found a sight regarding the word "Cure"for MI. this is a brief sample.

What we have instead of cures are a bunch of treatments. Most of which work pretty well, to varying degrees. But to most people seeking mental health assistance, treatments can take a frustratingly long period of time before finding one that works. For instance, finding the right medication can take months. And finding the right, experienced therapist you feel comfortable working with can also take months (even longer if the “good” therapists have waiting lists).

Once in treatment, your physician or psychologist rarely mentions the word “cure.” Cure is what doctors do for a broken wrist or scurvy. Set the wrist or give the patient a vitamin C shot, and voila! Done. Treating mental illness rarely results in a “cure,” per se. What it does result in is a person feeling better, getting better, and eventually no longer needing treatment (in most cases). But even then, rarely will a professional say, “Yes, you’re cured of your depression.”

Depression, on the other hand, like most mental illness, knows no boundaries. It will come and go as it pleases in our lives, even if we’ve successfully treated one episode of it. There seems to be little rhyme nor reason to when a mental disorder strikes, who it will strike (outside of genetic predispositions for some of them), and how deep or long the episode will last.

loopy

Sandy, more .Which brings me back to the question — how do you cure mental illness? The answer — you don’t. You help people understand what it is, learn and engage new ways of coping with its symptoms, and help them do the best they can with the resources they have available. Right now, there’s no “cure” for mental illness. I hope within my lifetime, I can answer this question in a very different way. All by John M. Grohol, Psy.D.
loopy

Sandy, I quite often use the term, a safe at the back of my mind. This safe no longer has a lock so I have to be on my guard 24/7 to make sure that when something said , done or seen does not open it and the bad stuff floods out. Unfortunately, being the f wit that I am my most vulnerable times are when I act the villiage idiot and my concentration lapses and the safe doors swing open, it also happen at night in bed whilst listening to my radio something is said and its too late the sh.t hits the fan again. No wonder I feel exhausted every day. I have tried.. don't matter.

loopy