I liked this article. I had to book mark it and light read it… I can go back and read it better when I’m not tired.
It interesting to see how much the idea of recovery has come.
It also raises one of my personal disappointments with psychiatry… The doom and gloom prognosis.
Like everyone… I too have had some good, bad and ugly when it comes to docs.
I get a bit angry when I think of the times I believed the doc who gave me the worst prognosis… I’m doomed… don’t even try… no one gets out of this… sure I might be able to maybe not suffer… but there’s no way I was going to flourish.
Don’t even try school… people with my illness can’t take it.
Don’t try to get a better job… it will destabilize me for sure…
It took me a long time to stop believing that doc… and trying to believe in myself.
but to see that he was just echoing the school of thought at the time… you know… the normal convention.
But if docs see me as doing better… I won’t get such a grim prognosis and I might get turned onto resources that will help me… not just keep me in stasis.
Regarding the psychiatrists I visit I will say I am really lucky. My regular doc encourages me to go to school, socialize and of course to get a nice job. Another senior doc I consulted about 2-3 times said that I might be able to come off medication. Or it might be because I’m from region of world where mental health conditions are treated on recovery based approach. Opposed to western/industrial culture. But things are changing slowly there as well.