What is Recovery?
Recovery can be defined as a personal process of tackling the adverse impacts of experiencing mental health problems, despite their continuing or long-term presence.
It involves personal development and change, including acceptance there are problems to face, a sense of involvement and control over one's life, the cultivation of hope and using the support from others, including direct collaboration in joint problem-solving between people using services, workers and professionals. Recovery starts with the individual and works from the inside out. For this reason it is personalised and challenges traditional service approaches.The recovery movement believes the process of experiencing mental illness and has consequences that take the person to a different position. There is no going back, so there may be a sense of loss. This means the recovery approach is a harder path than many people first understand it to be. It requires individuals to accept the impact of mental illness and become involved. Until the person accepts the idea they are responsible for setting the course of their own recovery, they won’t invest in making their own recovery plan. The recovery movement does not invest hope in a cure for mental illness and it does not invest hope in returning to a previous state before the onset of mental illness.
The process of recovery is ...
An active, ongoing and an individual process
It is self-directed and defined by the individual - there is no single path to recovery. It’s not a linear process; personal recovery can continue, even though distressing symptoms may come back. Sometimes this process has setbacks and can feel like “two steps forward, one step back”.
About the wider impact of mental illness
Recovery from the consequences of illness is often harder to overcome than the illness itself. Personal recovery has to negotiate these consequences.
Regaining control in one’s life
It is the movement from dependence upon others to personal understanding and self-reliance. Much of the process of recovery occurs away from professional support.
The ability to learn from oneself and others
It’s a process of finding and understanding personal meaning and making sense from your own experiences.
Creating social networks of support with people and through
activities you value
Having people who believe in you and stand by you, and collaborating in activities you value, supports personal recovery.
KEY TERMS
There are some key terms set out below. This is not an exhaustive list, but these became important during our learning.
Recovery Journey
In literature, life is often thought of as a journey (e.g., Pilgrim’s Progress, Canterbury Tales). What we have in common is a road, but everyone has to take up his or her own journey. For the recovery movement, personal recovery is often described as a journey starting from within and working outwards. This journey is not taken in one giant leap but in small, concrete steps. It’s not a straight path. There will be setbacks and some will face ongoing difficulties for the rest of their life.
Recovery narratives / accounts
A key feature of the recovery movement is the personal accounts provided by people who have made their own journeys of recovery and are continuing to make them. These narratives are important as inspiration for others embarking or making their own journeys. These accounts show how adversity has been overcome by an individual, in an example they share as a gift with us. These accounts often share information about what helped or hindered their own personal recovery. The core of the narrative commonly describes how a person shifts from being defined as having a chronic disability, and relegated to a stagnant life, to a much more complex and dynamic life-story that can best be understood as an ongoing journey. Narratives are important for making sense.
Hope
Diagnosis of mental illness is often leads to fear, fear to hopelessness and despair, and hopelessness to loss of control. Recovery is the process of building a sense of hope, often starting with small steps. It does not mean all doubts and fears are overcome. Different interactions may build hope. For some, for example, the presence of others who had regained control over their own life may be proof of the possibility. For others it may be a key person in a supportive environment. For others it may be another person’s story of recovery.
Lived experience
Experience of psychosis and other severe mental illness changes the person. The recovery movement values these experiences as being part of the life of the person, rather than ignored or perceived to have no use or meaning or cannot be interpreted.
Change is possible
In the recovery movement there is a bedrock belief that change is possible, that people can and do transform their own behaviour and beliefs in the face of the right kind of impetus. As individuals we are in a unique position to make these changes for ourselves. Personal recovery cannot be imposed or defined by an external authority. It must start with a personal commitment.
This challenges some of the most ingrained assumptions we may hold about other people and ourselves. We may like to think of ourselves as autonomous, that we are who we are and how we act is something permanent and set down in our genes or by our temperament. But there appear to be some very different outcomes in reality.
Small, deliberate steps
Much recovery work involves individuals taking small, concrete steps. Goal-setting, breaking down large tasks into manageable steps, is part of the work carried out in self-management and it’s part of the strategy adopted in Wellness Recovery Action Plan (WRAP) training and solution-focused training.
-Asking for help from a supporter
-Engaging with others and sharing your experiences
-Learning to value your own experiences
-Making sense of your experiences
-Dealing with the fears associated with changing our understanding of ourselves
-Developing self-confidence
-Becoming your own person again
-Getting involved in activities that are meaningful and worthwhile to you.
Supportive environment
We are powerfully influenced by our surroundings. We are suggestible to what we see and hear. While the individual is in control of their personal recovery, a supportive environment helps and should not be underestimated. Social support and a sense of belonging, being part of a social network, are a vital part of good health.