The Five Stages of Change

With the convention entries wrapped up, I'd like to re-visit the topic of setting goals, in a two-part blog series. First, I'll talk about recovery and in the second blog entry I'll detail the specifics of my three-year treatment plan.

I found in my file cabinet an Elle article by Lauren Slater that sheds light on the process of change. She refers to work done by James Prochaska, who has studied transformation and identified five stages of change: precontemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, and maintenance.

A stage-based model like this could indeed be useful in schizophrenia recovery. The idea is that people don't "have sudden epiphanies, then ‘take the bull by the horns.'" The process takes time. You could enter and finish the precontemplative stage without being conscious of it.

For the past three years, I have entertained the idea in my head of moving into a co-op. Without articulating that goal on paper or in words, I began browsing apartments on CraigsList. My mother bought me a new dining table and chairs, and a TV armoire. I bought on my own a buffet server to complete the dining set.
The contemplation effort happened in the last five months, and I've begun now to do the preparation: I'm typing up a checklist of questions to ask when the real estate brokers show me apartments. The real action will take place in August, when I schedule appointments to talk with three brokers. The maintenance stage will be coming with the money to pay the mortgage and carrying charges, plus the upkeep of the apartment.

More elementally, the five stages of change as they relate to schizophrenia could be seen in how we grasp and execute our recovery. The precontemplative (subconsciously knowing that things have to change) and contemplative (consciously examining our lives) are expressed in each individual as he or she alone does, and at his or her own comfort level and pace.

I began subtly to perceive what could happen if I didn't take the meds, as early as my first hospital stay when I looked around at the others on the ward and felt I didn't want to spend my life revolving in and out of the hospital.

The preparation involves committing to educating ourselves about the illness, and making plans for the future such as working and finding a place to live. Through action, we do what we've chosen to do. In the maintenance stage, we solidify and improve our recovery, using the techniques we've learned work for us and discarding what doesn't. This last stage requires we act as the expert on our own recovery.

In my life, I know I have to write things down to articulate how I feel about what's going on and the changes I'm contemplating. I thoroughly research my options, taking time to do this, and only after that do I act. I feel better having a plan; and when things are settled and decided, I rest easy-for the most part. My goal of owning a co-op is the scariest action I've dared consider taking. I've spent sleepless nights agonizing over this. Having come to the decision to act swiftly in this depressed real estate market, I'm no more at ease with it. The worry crops up as I move closer to the date I've set to approach brokers.