What Is Recovery?
This past year I was a part of a program that trained me to work as a peer support in the mental health field. This doesn’t in any way make me a medical professional. All I am is someone who is trying to take my lived experiences and how I overcame them to help those who are in the position I was once in myself.
A question that came up time and time again was, What is Recovery? Well, the answer to that is, there isn’t just one answer! Recovery isn't so black and white as to say “Do this exactly step by step and you’ll be fixed!” Really the honest answer and the least popular one is… It’s different for everyone!
What works for me won’t always work for you or others. There was a diagram in my training that I’ll place below. Where the expectations of what recovery is compared to what recovery actually is!
Recovery isn’t a straight arrow, a one-way road. For me and my life recovery was the point of being sick and tired of being sick and tired! And when I reached that point is when I started to make major changes!
It started 7 years ago when I was hospitalized for anorexia nervosa. I Went through my treatment in the clinic and got healthy enough to go back home after being right on death’s doorstep.
However, just a year and a half later I found myself in an abusive relationship which caused me to relapse into my anorexia. When I realized I was relapsing is when I did whatever it took to get out of that relationship. Which meant needing to get a restraining order. Even though I had gotten my freedom it took me 4 years to start my recovery journey once again.
I sought out therapy and now have been with the said therapist for the past 3 years. But that doesn’t mean that I don’t still struggle from time to time. I still have bad days, hell sometimes I have bad weeks! But regardless of how long that lasts I always guide myself back to staying and REMAINING recovered.
This battle is an everyday one. It takes hope and tenacity and a whole lot of understanding that recovery is a JOURNEY.
I remain to challenge my illnesses and trauma, and I remain to fight it! The road is winding and rocky and it really sucks sometimes. But this is MY recovery and it sure as hell is better than just sitting down and taking it!
