Believing you can recover is vital to recovery from mental illness
By Daniel Fisher, M.D., Ph.D.

In our last newsletter I highlighted the importance to recovery of having people in your life who believe in you. I pointed out that these people affirm our deepest self and have confidence in our ability. What I should have made clear is that they believe that we can recover. I was reminded of the importance of this belief in our recovery by a letter recently sent to me by a reader. She was prompted to write me because she could personally relate to my article in a previous newsletter, "Recovery is Real." She had read about my experience of my recovery being denied by a psychology professor and was amazed to see how similar that attitude was to one she had been subjected to. She wrote:

"I had suffered from severe mental illness in my mid-20's and early 30's (I am now 53). Then, through the grace of God, I was able to find my way out of this debilitating condition and make a full recovery. A few years ago I had the opportunity to work in a mental health agency as secretary to the Executive Director. Unfortunately I didn't realize that his mindset was like those you describe in your article - he needed me to either deny that I had ever been sick or otherwise go back to the 'consumer mode.' Eventually that stigmatizing attitude surfaced and I was forced to leave the job." She also sent us a letter to the editor she had published in her local paper which elaborated on this theme...

http://www.power2u.org/articles/recovery/believing.html