Recovery and the Conspiracy of Hop, Essay Example

Abstract

The reaction paper is based on three aspects of recoveries: the barriers to recovery, factors that promoted recovery and the treatment interventions. Personal observations, thoughts and feelings will be expressed as well as the treatments that will be best for their recovery.

Recovery Stories #1: Reaction Paper

There is a saying in my country stating that “once you’ve been treated of your mental illness the illness will one day come back so beware”. As a Ghanaian, I see a lot of mentally ill individuals sleeping on the streets with no help coming from family members, the government and the mental institutions. Instead, they are been stigmatized as crazy, evil and cursed people left alone to their own fate. This treatment affects people’s basic human rights and makes it impossible to recover from mental illness, making people sink deeper in depression. It is a well known fact that in America, most suicides are linked with some sort of mental illness. But the real question is what our community, families and the mental heal system is doing about it. For the observer, it seems like the society does not want to know about mental illnesses at all.

Reading these articles, I felt that once these mentally ill individuals are diagnosed, they are set apart from the “normal” people. They are stigmatized by the society. Their sense of making their own choices and decisions is wiped away. Isolation and rejection from their family also impacted these individuals, heavily affecting their recovery process. As one of the patients confirmed: “This could not be happening that I could be taken to a hospital against my will when I was fine…”’, (Fox, 2001. p. 53). Forcing her to go for treatment was not a good choice of the family. The husband also decided on which doctor to see, instead of allowing her to see her own doctor. While the female patient was neither aggressive nor violent, her husband assumed that she cannot make her own decisions based on her illness.

I also thought that due to the rejection and isolation felt from their families and friends; patients were often alone and felt unworthy. Another patient’s account confirms: “From the feelings of unworthiness that I experienced, I began to cut myself on my legs with knife or scissors, with anything sharp that I could find, in other to make myself feel that I was good enough to be redeemed”  (Davis, 2005 p. 126).  Feeling worthless is the lowest people can sink in depression.  Davis (2005) was often alone which brought about her hallucination. She often talked to Shalom whom she felt is her friend, companion and someone she could talk to, but the person only existed in her head. If she had a real friend or a family member to talk to, she wouldn’t have been talking to Shalom and cutting herself. Even Fox (2001) felt rejected, since her children wouldn’t get closer to her. They looked at her as “different” because of the stigmatization of her by their dad. But Davis, (2005) said mental illness doesn’t change humans to non-humans. It is an illness, just like any other.

Moreover, in order to recover from mental illness, certain barriers need to be overcome. Stigmatization, fear and lack of clarity needs to go. Once a person is stigmatized, they feel inferior, unwelcome and alone in the world. Why will people go all the way to call some of the mentally ill patient by their illness? For instance, someone with schizophrenia is often introduced as schizophrenic, but someone with hypertension is not referred to as “hypertensic”. This is how the stigma that people have on mentally ill individuals works. Fox (2001) head one of her husband’s friends refer to one mentally ill person he saw as crazy. This brought anxiety in her to let some people be aware of her illness for the fear of been stigmatized. In addition, fear and ambiguity doesn’t make one progress in the process of recovery. Davis (2005) feared that her hallucination would return. All she needed was to face what was ahead and put everything behind. The same thing applies to Fox (2001), who needed to let lose of her fear of being cast out. Pregnancy sickness is something many pregnant women experience, and her fear of judgment was irrational, but could have been understood by her family.

Once the above barriers are removed, the recovery process becomes easy. Some of the helpful factors to recovery in the readings were family and friends’ support, daily routines, and the medication they were put on. Still, experiences with recovery differ, as Deegan (1996, p. 6) confirms: “Each person’s recovery journey is different and unique”,  This means one person’s recovery process wouldn’t be the same as another; what is good for you will not be good for me. Family and friends’ support is very crucial for recovering. You should not be left alone in your sickness without emotional support. When Davis (2005) got closer to her friends and family again, her loneliness disappeared. She became active in writing, which occupied her mind.  The fear that Shalom would be back disappeared. She said, “I have to find new things that would help me gain grip on who I was; other things that would fill loneliness that consume my heart; other things that would excite, stimulate and intrigue me”(Davis, 2005 p. 128). One thing that helped her recovering was listening to music, which calms one down. She also engaged her mind in writing, which keeps the mind active. Fox (2001)  recovered well when she divorced her husband. She freed herself from the stigma the husband placed upon her and the inability to decide and do things herself. “Creating hope filled, care filled environment that nurture and invite growth and recovery is alternative” (Deegan, 1996,  p. 7-8).  People suffering from mental illness need a loving, caring environment that will accept their situation, but not to stigmatize them.

As Deegan (1996) said, everyone’s recovery is different. There are several treatments that could be suitable for these individuals suffering from mental illness. I will suggest Vocational Rehabilitation and therapy for the individuals speaking through the stories. Vocational Rehabilitation program would help individuals with mental illness become self sufficient like Fox (2001,) to be able to do things by themselves, and make their own decisions. Therapy, on the other hand, can help them improve their social and work skills. It is needed to rebuild their lives and relationships with others.

Finally, we all have to be the voice for people with mental illness. They think they are alone, inferior and unworthy in the society they are in and we need to speak for them. Stigmatizing mentally ill individual isn’t the solution. We that know mental illness is just like any other have to advocate and make the public aware of their actions. They need love, care and an acceptance from the community. With the support they feel they are not alone in their recovery.

References

Davis, G. (2005). Coping with Mental Illness. Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal, 28(3), 299-302.

Deegan, P. E. (1996). Recovery and the Conspiracy of Hop. “There’s a Person In Here”: The Sixth Annual Mental Health Services Conference of Australia and New Zealand. Brisbane, Australia.

Fox, V. (2001). Marriage and Mental Illness. Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal, 25(2), 196-198.