Does recovery require the absence of symptoms?
Tooth, Kalyanansundaram and Glover (1997) reported that only 14% of respondents understood recovery as freedomfromsymptoms. Rather, it involves self-management of the illness: ‘Many of us have learned to monitor symptoms to determine the status of our illness, using our coping mechanisms to prevent psychotic relapse or to seek treatment earlier, thereby reducing the number of acute episodes and hospitalizations’ (Koehler, 1994, p. 199).
Further, although a number of consumers felt that their treatment was worse than the illness and had been detrimental to their recovery (Bassman, 2000; Frese, 2000; Mead and Copeland, 2000), and some saw their cessation of medication use as a mark of their progress (Anonymous, 1989; Schmook, 1994; Lynch, 2000), others see the controlled use of medications as fully compatible with recovery:
Being in recovery means that I don’t just take medications . . . Rather I use medications as part of my recovery process. In the same way, I don’t just go to the hospital . . ..
Rather I use the hospital when I need to. (Deegan, 1997, p. 21) As Tenney (2000) says, it is a matter of choice:
Now, sometimes I think that my life would be a lot easier if I just took the medication; it would make a lot of the noise stop. The side effects are really bad and that’s what prevents me from taking the medication now. There’s no black and white on this stuff. Recovery is a hard choice that does not end with just not taking medication. (p. 1443)
Although plainly the lack of symptoms is one form of recovery, from these quotes it is clear that some consumers do not see the lack of need for medication or the absence of symptoms as a necessary for recovery. Nor is the absence of symptoms necessarily sufficient for psychological recovery.
Tooth, Kalyanansundaram and Glover (1997) reported that only 14% of respondents understood recovery as freedomfromsymptoms. Rather, it involves self-management of the illness: ‘Many of us have learned to monitor symptoms to determine the status of our illness, using our coping mechanisms to prevent psychotic relapse or to seek treatment earlier, thereby reducing the number of acute episodes and hospitalizations’ (Koehler, 1994, p. 199).
Further, although a number of consumers felt that their treatment was worse than the illness and had been detrimental to their recovery (Bassman, 2000; Frese, 2000; Mead and Copeland, 2000), and some saw their cessation of medication use as a mark of their progress (Anonymous, 1989; Schmook, 1994; Lynch, 2000), others see the controlled use of medications as fully compatible with recovery:
Being in recovery means that I don’t just take medications . . . Rather I use medications as part of my recovery process. In the same way, I don’t just go to the hospital . . ..
Rather I use the hospital when I need to. (Deegan, 1997, p. 21) As Tenney (2000) says, it is a matter of choice:
Now, sometimes I think that my life would be a lot easier if I just took the medication; it would make a lot of the noise stop. The side effects are really bad and that’s what prevents me from taking the medication now. There’s no black and white on this stuff. Recovery is a hard choice that does not end with just not taking medication. (p. 1443)
Although plainly the lack of symptoms is one form of recovery, from these quotes it is clear that some consumers do not see the lack of need for medication or the absence of symptoms as a necessary for recovery. Nor is the absence of symptoms necessarily sufficient for psychological recovery.
