What is The Mental Health Recovery Project?
by Laurie Berkshire, M.A.
I have created this site to promote mental health and take the focus off of "illness."
As both a former counselor and client in the mental health system, I've learned the value of "insight." We need to be aware of our symptoms and work through our past issues. We can't face our challenges and address our problems if we don't know what they are.
But I've also learned that focusing too much on our "sickness" is a slow train to hell. Constantly being told we're "sick" (by others, and especially ourselves) can ruin our hope for recovery.
This isn't a new concept. The next time you watch TV, notice how you're constantly being sent messages that there's something wrong with you. Corporate America NEEDS you to feel old, fat, depressed, impotent, pre-menstrual, under-educated, acne-prone, frizzy-haired and nicotine-addicted. And if you don't already feel this way, they try very hard to convince you otherwise. They're not going to get rich telling you you're fine just the way you are.
Yes, these products can be helpful, but only if we use them to target "the problem." They won't help your self-esteem. They won't help you appreciate the good things in life. And they won't help you realize how strong and beautiful you are despite "the problem."
This is what recovery is all about -- balancing problem-management with self-appreciation. Remember, for every limitation we have, we also have a strength. It's trite, but true. Our brains are hard-wired to make up for what's lacking. It's what has kept the species alive.
So learn about your symptoms or find out how trauma and abuse has affected you. But also pay attention to the Other Side -- the side where you are MORE than your problems and symptoms. This isn't just "positive thinking," because only looking at positives will also put you out of balance.
True recovery is finding YOUR comfort-level with being human. You are full of beauty and imperfections, intelligence and mistakes, happiness and despair, accomplishments and challenges, love and hate, dreams and reality.
Allow yourself to "be." Accept as much bad as you can take, realize how good you actually are, and make changes accordingly. It's much easier to handle the bad if you know you've got the strength to do it.
Who I'd Like To Meet:
Recovery-minded people and Survivors...that means YOU. If you're still here, you're surviving. You're obviously doing whatever you can to live another day, even if it involves "bad things." No matter what you do to cope, you're still trying to find ways to cope. You haven't given up yet!!!
If you use "bad things" to cope, you know what they are. They're habits now, so it'll take time to change them. But you're aware of them, and that's half the battle. Everybody does bad things. It doesn't make you a bad person.
So please try to embrace your Survivor Spirit - it will empower you to find "better things."
