Spirituality, Philosophy, Understanding:
Historically, when mental health workers considered issues of understanding and acceptance, they thought in narrow terms about promoting 'insight about 'illness'. What has been frequently missed is the broader, philosophical, 'meaning of life' type questions: 'Why me?' 'What is the point?' 'How can I understand what has happened to me?' - Such questions are critical to understanding and accepting what has happened.
Deegan (1999) has emphasised that accepting 'illness ', as such, is not part of the recovery process; - however, coming to an understanding of what is happening, allowing the person to take responsibility for themselves, is key.
Some people make sense of their experience in scientific terns, some see it in religious or spiritual terms, while others use social or psychological frameworks; there are many explanations of ‘the meaning of life'. The critica issue is not whether such explanations are 'right' or `wrong : believing in assorted neurotransmitters is not necessarily better than having faith in deities. Each person has to develop his/her own understanding, as it is rare for someone elses explanation to make sense to you without at least some modifications
The critical question is whether an individual's understanding makes sense to him/her and at the same time, allows the possibility of hope and growth. It is not possible to embark on a recovery journey if you believe that you passively determined by someone or something else, whether this be inescapable fate, the unmodifiable action of genes, or all-knowing, all powerful professional experts. Recovery involves active participation.
Taking Back Control:
'In recovery, self-determination is important: We are learning that those of us with psychiatric disabilities can become experts in our own self-care, can regain control over our lives, and can be responsible for our own journey of recovery.' (Deegan 1992).
The process of taking back control involves taking charge of your problems, i.e. learning what helps and what doesn't, learning how to live with the ups and downs, and learning how to protect yourself from things that the problems worse. Mental health workers and others who have experienced similar problems can offer information about things that have helped and hindered others, but each person's situation is unique and each must his/her own way of dealing with the problems encountered.
But taking control involves more than just dealing with problems. It means making decisions about your life and pursuing your interests. We may take advice from other people, but we must evaluate this advice ourselves rather than letting others make decisions for us. Enabling people to regain control does not, however, mean simply letting them get on with it; help and support are still important. Most of us rely heavily on the encouragement and assistance of others in order to be able to do the things we want to do..
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