Topic Tuesday // What does recovery mean to you? // 17 Oct. 7pm AEDT

[Former-Member]

This is a very valid insight @Former-Member and welcome @Adek

When dealing with complex mental health issues - maybe the word recovery isn't helpful or realistic as such. And something more to do with the cyclic nature of it could be better.

Maybe there could be a better term for people when looking into the outcome of their diagnosis's or situations when they are quite complex and often chronic. 

[Former-Member]

I am really loving everyones feedback and insights around this. Some of you have already mentioned the people around you such as loved ones, therpists, friends and their thoughts - which brings me to my next question...

Sometimes the way we think and feel about recovery is impacted by how recovery is discussed or viewed by those around us.

How do others around you (psychologists, friends, family, doctors, strangers etc.) perceive recovery?

[Former-Member]

@Former-Member
I don't see a meaningful life as recovery, I see it as something to be achieved in spite of diagnosis.

At some point after diagnosis, in our cycle of grief, we stop looking for a cure and begin to advocate being 'as well as possible' for as long as possible. It stops being about delaying life until we are cured but enjoying the moment. -Lisa Copen

[Adek]

Agree with @Former-Member. Remission.. as the symptoms are repressed, reduced or subsides.. but it is temporal.

[frog]

Hi all. @Former-Member I'm with you in feeling sad when I hear talk of recovery. Hopes, dreams, goals are hard things for me. I just feel like I'm falling so far short that it would be less painful not to focus on what's out of reach. I'm aware that this sounds incredibly pessimistic, but I'm generally preoccupied with getting through the day. Recovery is relative. I'm not in hospital. I am working, part time for not much money, but working none the less. These are positive, but I don't think they constitute 'recovery' in the way most of the population understand it.

[Shaz51]

being 'as well as possible' for as long as possible-- I totally agree @Former-Member, @Former-Member

it is hour by hour , day by day  a lot of trail and error , trying different meds to try and get the best we can

[Mazarita]

I am another person who doesn't like the term 'recovery', as it seems so inaccurate to what I actually have experienced through a lifetime of mental illness and treatments for it. My current understanding of my bipolar 1 is that it is 80% genetically related (Black Dog Institute bipolar information sheet). The best I think I can really hope for is to manage to live as well as possible, given a lifelong mental illness. This is truer to my actual experience over time. I also agree that growing older has a bearing on mental illness too. At 55, I no longer really aim to 'recover', as in heal completely, that now seems like a tormenting fantasy from my younger years. But I can try to accept and even enjoy as much as possible the life I have, even if it bears a rather unusual shape compared to a 'norm' most of us have in our heads.

[Former-Member]

@Former-Memberperfect example of this is my stupid doctor (yes I am not going back to her) said to me in my last visit, "You have been seeing a psychologist for awhile now, you should be getting better". Perfect example of someone who (missed the mental helath lectures!) thinks that just because I am getting help, I should be getting better.

[Adek]

I feel for u @Mazarita cuz we are in the same boat. It runs from my ancestors to descendants. Am just trying hard to make the illness more knowledgeable for my kids so they can cope better than how we..the elders did.

[Former-Member]

Welcome @frog and @Mazarita

I think its a really shared feeling that the word recovery is not that accurate and maybe makes people feel a bit of pressure to get to a result that is identified in the general population as 'cured'.

The word you mentioned 'managed' and another word that came up earlier was 'aware' - I feel these both reflect better, the world of mental health and what we could be aiming towards in our journey's. Sometimes being able to reflect and learn as we go - speaks volumes more than recovered could. 

@Former-Member - like you said, how awful to feel measured by a health professional on what they think they are seeing!