Coping with Loss: Coping with the multiple losses that mental health problems can bring necessitates the processing of what has happened. Moving beyond hopelessness and despair necessarily involves a grieving process, but this does not follow some predetermined sequence. Sometimes it is assumed that grieving and acceptance of loss must occur before a person can begin to move forward, but this is not necessarily the case.
Numerous accounts of recovery illustrate how the implications of mental health problems can initially be too much to grasp. Mental health professionals often see such denial as a problem, as an inherent part of the person's mental health difficulties that must be challenged before progress is possible. People who have been forced to rebuild their lives in the face of mental health problems often have a different perspective on this: they see denial as important in enabling them to keep going and retain hope in the face of catastrophic events.
I refused to believe I was crazy. I kept saying I have problems. I'm not crazy.'... It was denial internally that allowed me to go to school and do the things I needed to do to get a better life... (Donna, cited in Vincent 1999)
They said to me there's no hope. And I said to myself ‘No way'... It took years to accept it. What it would mean. And what it would have to do with my , life ...It took years. (Jennie, cited in Vincent 1999)
Vincent (1999) explored the experience of people with mental health problems who had succeeded in obtaining good jobs. She concluded that denial can be important in enabling people to resist the stigma of a 'mental illness' label. It was only after people had started rebuilding their lives that they were able to move beyond denial to an acceptance of the need to address and manage their symptoms. Such a conclusion flies in the face of the accepted wisdom that people must gain 'insight' before they can move on. It suggests that, for many, the reverse is true: they can only begin to accept and face what has happened to them after they can see the possibility of rebuilding their lives. This makes sense. If all people know are the stereotypes, then acceptance of their mental health problems is terrifying:
All I knew were the stereotypes I had seen on television or in the movies. To me, mental illness meant Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde, psychopathic serial killers, loony bins, morons, schizos, fruitcakes, nuts, straight jackets and raving lunatics. They were all I knew about mental illness, and what terrified me was that professionals were saying I was one of them. (Deegan 1993).
When someone has begun to see that their life can mean more than these stereotypes then acceptance may be less difficult. However, such acceptance may not be necessary. If people are able to rebuild their lives, does it really matter or not they believe they have mental health problems. More |
