Is recovery from mental illness possible? What is the journey of recovery?
Recovery is a journey that all sufferers must undertake in order to overcome their mental illness. A common misconception is that recovery from mental illness is impossible and this may cause sufferers to lose hope. However, this is not true and today a range of treatment options exist which have proven to be effective. Mental illness occurs due to adverse life experiences which are unique to different sufferers. As a result, there is no set formula for recovery and different treatment options work for different sufferers.
While professional help may be necessary, the goal of recovery shouldn’t be to become dependent on mental health services. Since mental illness is caused by prolonged distress, recovery should aim help sufferers manage distress by helping them identify, adopt and practice healthy coping skills. To learn more about healthy coping skills, visit the manage distress section.
It is also important to keep realistic expectations when it comes to the journey of recovery since it can have multiple ups and downs. For some sufferers, recovery may mean learning to live with the symptoms of the illness rather than a complete end of symptoms. Sometimes we may feel that we are doing great and have fully recovered, but then something bad can happen that may cause a relapse (return of the symptoms of mental illness). If a relapse has occurred, we must remind ourselves that it is part of the journey and we must not lose hope so we can recover again.
For real life examples of successful cases of recovery visit the survivor stories section.