[hartbroken]

There is a tension created between hoping that my mental health will and can indeed improve with the right balance of meds... and the fact that I need to accept what I have and move on in life.

Sometimes I get excited that there may be a breakthrough for my illness, that hope lies just around the corner. Maybe by the doctor increasing or decreasing this, then the balance will be better... But then I get slammed in the face and I think, why don't I just accept what and who I am, and work on coping rather than hoping for a better prognosis with meds?

Do you guys ever feel that tension of not knowing where to rest your confidence in hope or surrender and acceptance?

[splitimage]

I think you need a balance between hope and acceptance or at least I do. I found I needed acceptance first. I fought for a long time how sick I really was and resisted some offers of help, and I kept going around in circles. Then I kind of finally surrendered and said "ok, if all the Dr's are telling me I'm really sick, maybe I should listen and accept the help." That got me all sorts of great help, a case manager, free one-on-one counselling with a psychologist, and into some great recovery programs. And I noticed I was slowly getting better and feeling better. That and one program in particular, the "Wellness Recovery Action Plan" started to give me hope that I could really turn my life around. And slowly I am. I'm moving out of the sober living residence this Dec. with a friend. I'm going back to school in January. I have the contact for a job search program for people with disabilities for when school finishes. I'm starting to feel confident about my ability to find a job when I graduate. And most importantly, I'm starting to feel happy again. Not all the time, but enough of the time for me to feel hopeful.

splitimage

[pachyderm]

Acceptance of where you are now does not mean you accept that you will never be better.

[eskielover]

Originally Posted by pachyderm

Acceptance of where you are now does not mean you accept that you will never be better.

That is exactly what the definition of DBT "radical acceptance" is all about. We accept today what things are for now that we don't have the ability at this time to change....but it doesn't mean that we won't change how we see things tomorrow with a different perspective on things because of other changes that have happened........everything is forever changing & we need to be as flexible in our lives as the changes we are forced to experience.

Took me a long time to realize that I can't hope for something to just "be fixed" & never have to deal with it again....like I always thought about things growing up...life isn't like that.....it's something that constantly needs work on & constant tweaking to adjust how we perceive & deal with out lives