We who have a chronic brain disorder may have to confront several challenges to our recovery, including:
- Stigma: Most people don't understand these illnesses, and many wrongly assume they represent a character or moral defect, and may even insist we control them through willpower. Stigma can be a powerful disincentive to getting help. It can contribute to our own negative feelings about ourselves. But if we're determined to recover, we can't allow their ignorance to affect us too much. We do have lives to live-rewarding ones.
- Our health care system is designed to treat acute (immediate) problems rather than the sort of chronic or long-lasting challenges that we face. That limits the number of effective, affordable, accessible options to assist us. It takes management, determination, and persistence to work around those limitations.
- Treatments have varying levels of effectiveness and some really aren't effective at all. We'll need help identifying what will work best for us. That means trusting someone, probably a professional, to guide us. And trust may not come easy to us.
- We've already experienced damage, possibly physical as well as psychological, from our disease. We're not starting at square one. We may have to go back and clean a few messes, particularly in our most important relationships. And form new relationships that are healthy-or as we like to say, 'recovery positive'.
- And of course, there's that tendency to go back to old ways of thinking and behaving-- something we need always to be alert to. Then again, we already tried those ways, and how'd it work for us?
Not surprisingly, many of us struggle with motivation. This is a marathon, not a sprint. We have doubts, perhaps there will be lapses and relapses. When we've finally faced the reality of our own distorted thinking, we recognize the need to seek feedback and guidance from others-even if it isn't always what we want to hear.
For most of us, successful recovery will involve three elements:
- Education and treatment: This is not a situation where we can "set it and forget it", like those TV ads for miracle cookers. We have a lifetime of mindfulness ahead of us. It starts when educate ourselves about our disease and treatments, and seek to keep our knowledge current. We search out new information and evaluate new options as they appear.
- Individual-specific strategies: Helping professionals can help us to review potential treatments, and identify particular behaviors that may be contributing to our problems and design strategies to deal successfully with various challenges. We're all somewhat unique, and so will be our approach to recovery.
- A commitment to sane living: It's not enough to manage symptoms. We need to learn and practice patterns of thinking and acting that will help "rewire" our brain, little by little, to live a happier, more fulfilling existence. Learning how to live well in spite of our problems is like going on offense in football-we're playing not just to stay even, but to win.