What is recovery?

What is recovery, what does recovery from Mental Illness mean to you?

Do you decide or judge if you or others will ever recover? I hope I don't..

Do you think choosing Love each day (despite the people in the world who don't or can't love) is an essential part of recovery, and an essential part of living in this world? I do.. (and I'm sorry if I sometimes have come across as angry in the past, even yesterday. (?) I don't censor all my words, maybe I should do... but part of my recovery is expressing my truth)

Love and peace to all in this Depression Group

Without love, the world would be truly awful

Excellent question Fuzzy. I'm going to ponder that. Thank you for this thread.

I don't decide or judge about ever recovering or not but I'm scared what if I don't recover at all...also how long it's going to take me. About love, I love and am thankful for the love that I have received from my online friends. But in the real world I don't have anyone who loves me. Maybe my Mom a bit.

I don't think it's so much about recovery (tho that is the objective) as about surviving. I've learned that my illness is not going away, but I can treat it and be the best me I can be in spite of it. IMO trying too hard to get better quickly can really cause you to fall backwards, as you stress about not being where you thought you should be. Sometimes it's ok to just BE, accepting what is, rather than trying to find something that is not there.
I hope that made sense.

I don't think in terms of recovery...I just want to feel better...
how can you recover from certain traumas and losses...

A huge and emphatic "YES" to choosing Love... and to attaining Peace.


WC

Very good question. Choosing love even when others fail to do so - truly noble. I don't really know. I'm not sure what true recovery would look like for me, but I'd like to think it's possible. I've continued to exist in spite of challenges, but my strength is not at the level I think it should be by now.

Realizing there is a major problem in the way you are living your life and taking the steps needed to live differently.

Love is certainly the answer to all the chaos in the world, however there are very few souls in the world who know how to love hence the lack thereof.
I don't know if I will ever recover from my major depression and frankly, that seems like a far possibility and I have made my peace with it. All my energy and emotional resources are going to "just being OK". In other words, if I am OK enough to go to work, OK enough to maintain my personal relationships in a healthy level, and OK enough to exercise every day and find the strength to eat healthy, i feel like I have accomplished a lot.
When the pain caused by depression is intense and deep, I have no choice but to appreciate and have gratitude for just being OK.

I've been thinking about this question. I suspect for a lot of us, the idea of recovery is akin to reclaiming something that we lost. We want to get back an aspect of ourselves or our lives that we miss. Some people who struggle with mental health issues will in fact be able to treat their problems, and restore themselves to a satisfactory state of health (thankfully).

But, as little turtle suggested, some things can't be recovered. Some scars are too deep, or some people's biological makeup is too stacked against them (or both ). Speaking for myself, I don't see recovery as something I can achieve. Reshaping or reforging my life, and letting go of what I've lost, is my best bet. But I see the rest of my life, however long that may be, as damage control; an effort to minimize the suffering. I could MAYBE stumble on to happiness again, and inadvertently recover, but I'm not holding my breath. I'm just thankful for the days when it hurts less.

I don't know if you can recover from mental illness. I just hope for stable

I want to feel better too...with all my heart...but...I don't know how
Also I don't know how long do I have to wait till I feel better....

maybe you have the metabolic syndrome...you need to know about this

What is the metabolic syndrome? I'll try to search for it in the net

very important desiree....please look it up... I want you to feel better..has to do with 5 things-----------
weight/bp/fbs/triglycerides/hdl

I have a problem with being overweight...specially around the waist...so I have to work on that

it is not just you and me...it is many people who are depressed...have a problem with metabolic syndrome...and this does have to do with depression and anxiety...

Like little turtle I think of feeling better, not of recovery

there is a way of feeling better....
we have to do it...
no one else can do it for us...
we can start today to feel better and have some hope..
a tiny little hope...
start tiny in 2 ways...weigh yourself and then
#1 stay away from sugar and white bread and refined carbs..
#2 start to walk every day...tiny today

we can feel better....I am a recovering depressive...I have been in recovery
for several years...I will be in recovery until death...and I will try to get off this damn celexa...I am at 5 mg...of course I take coffee in the am and alcohol in the pm...

I agree with your suggestion. I also cut refined sugar and carbs.
May I ask? Alcohol has a lot of sugar and even those that are not sugar induced are huge triggers of depression. So?