If the recovery process is non-linear how can there be a stage model? Don’t we go back? What if you relapse?
This is an important question. Many mental health consumers experience multiple set-backs during journeys of recovery. Moreover, the individuality of the journey does not seem to lend itself to being viewed as a straight line. Much of the confusion comes from conflating the milestones along the journey, and the path taken. The paths taken are highly individualized – but if one travels north for long enough they will eventually pass a particular landmark. The logic behind the stage model of psychological recovery is based on a ‘highest level reached’ logic. That is, once you have made it to the Growth stage you always have made it to the Growth stage. Once you have been to New York, you have always been to New York. This doesn’t mean you are currently functioning or feeling as though you are in New York. The important issue, however, is that once you have been there, you know you can – hence it is likely to be easier to go back. The stages are an abstraction, a conceptualization. Set-backs, however, may occur leading to reductions in hope, impact upon identity, motivational effects to reduce the sense of taking responsibility, or temporary loss of sense of purpose. The current empirical evidence is that there is an ordinal relationship between the stages.
How people move across them, and how the return to previous stages occurs remains an empirical question for future research. Future measurement issues will aim to investigate more directly current stage and highest level attained stage, etc.
What if you relapse? This question is usually referring to symptoms of mental illness. This is a medical conceptualization, not a psychological one. A person further along the stages of psychological recovery is likely to have a broader range of resources to manage the medical relapse, and return to working towards a personal journey, if they have worked through earlier stages prior.
This is an important question. Many mental health consumers experience multiple set-backs during journeys of recovery. Moreover, the individuality of the journey does not seem to lend itself to being viewed as a straight line. Much of the confusion comes from conflating the milestones along the journey, and the path taken. The paths taken are highly individualized – but if one travels north for long enough they will eventually pass a particular landmark. The logic behind the stage model of psychological recovery is based on a ‘highest level reached’ logic. That is, once you have made it to the Growth stage you always have made it to the Growth stage. Once you have been to New York, you have always been to New York. This doesn’t mean you are currently functioning or feeling as though you are in New York. The important issue, however, is that once you have been there, you know you can – hence it is likely to be easier to go back. The stages are an abstraction, a conceptualization. Set-backs, however, may occur leading to reductions in hope, impact upon identity, motivational effects to reduce the sense of taking responsibility, or temporary loss of sense of purpose. The current empirical evidence is that there is an ordinal relationship between the stages.
How people move across them, and how the return to previous stages occurs remains an empirical question for future research. Future measurement issues will aim to investigate more directly current stage and highest level attained stage, etc.
What if you relapse? This question is usually referring to symptoms of mental illness. This is a medical conceptualization, not a psychological one. A person further along the stages of psychological recovery is likely to have a broader range of resources to manage the medical relapse, and return to working towards a personal journey, if they have worked through earlier stages prior.
