Mental Health Counseling

Mental Health Recovery

Written by John Potter

When a person has been diagnosed with a mental illness or problem, the process of getting back to normalcy is called as mental health recovery. It was an earlier belief that severe mental illness is chronic and therefore cannot be fully treated. However, researchers today don’t agree with this theory and believe that complete recovery is possible, given the right factors and conditions for recovery. The process of recovery from a mental health problem is a very personal experience and therefore it is very difficult to exactly define and quantify what is required in order to recover from a mental health problem. Someone might find the support of their spouse to be the driving force while another may find the power of modern medication to be responsible from his recovery. However, most processes of recovery have things in common, because after all the feelings and emotions of human beings are m ore or less similar. If you are on a path to mental health recovery, then the very first thing that is of primary importance is that you should not lose hope at any cost. Hope is that thread which holds you through your worst and most depressing moments during the process of recovery and is the biggest strength that you have. You should also take a cue from so many cases in which patients have recovered perfectly from a mental health illness and now leading normal lives. In addition, having been through such dark times, they are now much stronger and better equipped to meet the challenges of life. Therefore you should always have the hope for a better future. You can always take strength from close family members and friends who will stand by you during your times of need. They can motivate you to stay positive when you feel down and dejected during the recovery process. This greatly helps, especially when help is asked for intermittently. You should however make it a point that you do not depend completely on anyone, since it is always better to motivate yourself and stay positive and hopeful. Also, you should interact with more than one person and have multiple sources of support during your recovery period. This will also help you to stay away from isolation that eats away at the mental energies with thoughts of negative feelings and worries. You should try to involve yourself in social and communal activities and be a part of a group so that you feel better. Make sure that people understand you and what you are going through and only have that company which makes you feel better. Do not have the company of pessimistic friends who are negative all the time. Instead have a cheerful, optimistic and bring group of friends and family around you. When you want to quickly recover from a mental health illness, it is always advisable that you understand what the problem is, in medical and psychologi cal terms. This will give you a much deeper understanding of your own self and your problem and will therefore help you to tackle the problem better. When you learn well about the problem and its symptoms, you will naturally gain a better control over your illness. In addition, you should also take appropriate medication, and some self research into this area will be very helpful so that you can consult your psychiatrist or counselor and discuss the medication with him, since you know your condition the best. There are many advantages of medication, but it should be the right medication and therefore you will need to be careful in choosing the right one for yourself. There are many medications with side effects and which may not suit you. However, at the end of the day, medication greatly helps you to quickly recover from your illness. Finally, spirituality and religion do aid in your recovery, and if you are religious, then this is the right time to hold on to your faith instead of abandoning it. Spirituality and religion give you strength, faith and hope that are so essential in mental health recovery. This is not just a matter of faith, but has been shown to be true by psychological studies. For example, Koenig and Larson (Koenig, Harold G. & Larson, David B. (2001). Religion and mental health: evidence for an association. International Review of Psychiatry, 13 (2), 67-78. Retrieved April 13, 2009, from note the correlation from history to present between mental health and faith in God and spirituality and discuss this correlation in detail. The same has been confirmed by other independent research as published in the Irish Times which tells us that religious people are in general happier and has a good impact on our mental health. Religion will also help you to stay in a mentally fit frame of mind after recovery and will only strengthen you. So if you want some faith in the supernatural, now is the time.

 

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