Dear Christina,  your suggestions are great!   I consider myself "quite recovered". What this means is that I manage a 1-bedroom apartment, take daily meds, see a doc regularly, and I have a part -time job.       I also occasionally speak for the BCSS and tell my story to college and high-school students.     My family always tells me how well I'm doing.   Frankly, I'm tired of hearing it.    I know they love me, but I've been doing all of this now for almost 3 years and I still can't really re-define my relationships with them.

I recently completed a course entitled "Changeways".   It was the first psychotherapy of my life.   It was challenging and fulfilling.     I 'm starting another course entitled "Core Beliefs" in ten days. And I'm looking forward to it.

Back to topic.      When some people try to recover from this illness; they don't.    I really believe that the key is the individual's image of themselves.     Years ago I started to do this.    I simply separated the illness from myself.       My mother would say "oh , that's just the illness, dear; we'll get you some more (PRN) medication.   This became habitual and after a while I started to prefer the "real" me instead of the "illness" me.       It's kind of like the expression "poverty is an attitude"      Of course self-awareness is part of human growth and is different for everyone but maybe some of you people out there in cyberspace might want to give my idea a try

Sincerely,  Don Fraser

Christina Bruni

9/20/08 8:41am

Hi Don,

 

You bring up some good ideas.

 

Here in the U.S. NAMI offers the nine-week Peer-to-Peer education course for peers to create a mental healthcare advance directive, and a relapse prevention plan, among other things.

 

I'm glad you benefited from your own therapy models.

 

Cheers,

cb