It can be real

I know many people with mental illness (mental health issues... or whatever term you favor).  Many of them live lives diminished.  Not only have their issues and problems affected  their ability to live life as they want to, they have also found life impacted in untold ways, not only from their experience of the illness, but from their experience of what it means to be labeled "mentally ill" in this society.  And for many it has left them with one defining question.  Can life ever get better?  Can recovery be real?

The answer is yes.  The stories of literally thousands of people attest to this.  Other people have been where you have been and have found a way to a better life.  They have found that life need not be defined by the diagnostic label put on them and that nothing they are called, no name or term applied to them, means they are less than a person. 

Recovery can and will mean different things to each of us.  We need not judge ourselves by what we see others do, but only by our best efforts to do more and create a better life.  Recovery means defining life not as a pass-fail situation, but as a never ending opportunity to learn from all our experiences how to lead a better life.  Recovery does not mean minimizing or ignoring hard things or wishing away pain.  It means realizing they are not the only things and being persistent in pursuit of better life. 


Recovery is a faith in you:  the decisions you make in your life, your ability to learn how to make the best decisions, your capacity to weather and learn from your mistakes, your capacity for joy and happiness, and a commitment to a simple truth:  You have value.  You matter.  You count.

This blog is about that simple truth.  I have other blogs currently on the web.  Hopeworks Community (http://hopeworkscommunity.wordpress.com) is probably the most widely read.  Many mental health issues are dealt with in many ways.  And I fear somehow in the process that focus on this idea and what it means in real life is sometimes lost.  This is my attempt to make sure it is never lost.

And in succeeding posts you will find my effort to explore the whole process of how to make recovery a real and tangible part of daily life.