Recovery & Support
If you live with mental illness, you may be struggling to find treatment, manage your medication and cope with life's challenges effectively.
There is ample cause for hope. You are not alone, help is available, mental health conditions are treatable, and you can take practical steps to recover your life. Here you'll find interactive tools and resources to help you better understand your treatment options, work closely with your health care provider, learn about the supports available to you, and start on your recovery journey.
Use these Tools for Recovery to open up communication with your provider. Educate yourself about treatment options, paying for care, and getting the most from your treatment. Get practical advice on handling many challenges you might be facing, like finding the right medication, securing housing, pursuing education and work, and managing money. On this site, you will find information about how to start and maintain your recovery and live your richest, fullest life. Friends and loved ones will also find information here about how best to support you in your journey to recovery and wellness.
Recover your life
Recovering from a mental health condition is not just about getting better and staying well. We also need to recover the things that give our lives meaning and satisfaction.
Having a mental health condition can affect our lives in very basic ways, from how much money we have to the quality of relationships. This section provides practical advice on how to handle the practical aspects of living and how to live your life to the fullest.
When you're told for the first time that you have a diagnosis of a mental health problem, it's hard to understand what all of it means. What does being diagnosed with depression mean? Will I get better? What does treatment look like? Is there a cure or is mental illness a life-long battle? Does this mean I'm "crazy"? This process is made even more difficult by the way mental illness is often portrayed in the media, viewed by society, and subsequently how people with mental illness are treated in their everyday life. In the mental health community a history of discrimination and disempowerment led many to seek a way for individuals to reclaim their identity and their role in their own therapeutic process. Placing the person at the center and above all other aspects of the treatment process is the foundation of The Recovery Model.
The use of language is critical to ensuring a recovery-oriented and person-centered approach. It is important that people are seen first as people and not seen as their mental health condition. People are not Schizophrenic, Bipolar, or Borderline. People are not cases or illnesses to be managed. Outside of just being insensitive, the following is an example of the harm in taking an illness-centered approach. When people are seen only as Schizophrenic, it often becomes too easy to focus on just reducing symptoms of psychosis. The problem is that there is so much more to getting better than just getting rid of the bad voices or other symptoms. Recovery involves increasing a person's ability to make the changes they want in their life - the power to get better, to identify their goals, to develop the ability to accomplish their goals, and provide the supports needed to attain their goals. It means focusing on the person's strengths and the choices they want for their lives - not just their symptoms.
It is important to assess the way we use language and how the use of language reinforces negative biases or promotes empowerment and strengths. It is helpful to remember that people often identify by roles where they find meaning. Strengths-based roles help us to feel better and promote recovery: "I am a father, a sister, an electrician, a friend." Negative language reinforces discrimination and isolation in society. It is hurtful and detrimental to the recovery process to be called crazy, schizophrenic, wacko...
In the mental health field, people may self-identify as clients, consumers, peers, survivors, person in recovery. When taking a person-centered approach, people should be identified by the language or title they feel most comfortable with. When in doubt, call someone by their name...and ask how they would like to be addressed.
Recovery assistance programs
Some people working on their recovery find it helpful to follow a program that gives step-by-step advice, like Mary Ellen Copeland's Wellness Action Recovery Plan (WRAP). Programs such as these can help you to get well, stay well, and prepare you for times when you're feeling less well. Here are several programs and toolkits that will allow you to be more proactive in your recovery by teaching you how to plan and evaluate every stage. These action plans also give you the tools you need to create your own toolbox.
Developed in 1989, WRAP is designed to help you 1) identify what makes you well, and then 2) use wellness tools to relieve difficult feelings and maintain wellness. Your WRAP program is specific to your individual recovery because it is designed and implemented by you and you alone. WRAP is not intended to replace traditional treatments, and can be used as a compliment to your current treatment plans.
Key elements of WRAP include:
- Wellness Toolbox
- Daily Maintenance Plan
- Identifying Triggers and an Action Plan
- Identifying Early Warning Signs and an Action Plan
- Identifying When Things Are Breaking Down and an Action Plan
- Crisis Planning
To learn more about the WRAP program visit http://www.mentalhealthrecovery.com/index.php.
This new addition to the DBSA's Wellness Toolbox is an online tool that allows you to keep track of your physical, emotional, and mental well-being. With the Wellness Tracker, you can better recognize potential health problems and mood triggers in your daily life by tracking: your overall mood, mood disorder symptoms, lifestyle, medication, and physical health.
To learn more about DBSA's Wellness Tracker, visit https://tracker.facingus.org/.
Funded by SAMHSA's Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS), and prepared by Mary Ellen Copeland (creator of the WRAP program), "Recovering Your Mental Health" is a series of self-help guides directed at consumers. It covers a range of topics like: Action Planning for Prevention and Recovery, Building Self-Esteem, Developing a Recovery and Wellness Lifestyle, and Speaking Out for Yourself.
To access these publications, visit http://store.samhsa.gov/ and search for "Recovering Your Mental Health".