The Two Ends of Recovery | Stories from the narrative research project

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The Two Ends of Recovery

Published: September 2005

This story contains an example of how living in a therapeutic community has helped the process of recovery.

I’m a member of the service users’ movement and have been for a long time; I work as an advocacy worker and I have been a support worker and a care worker, so I have very strong views on how services should be run to best support people. I was doing some research because myself and some other people I know were looking into setting up a 24 hour crisis service, and I came across a therapeutic community that you could go and stay with to help you to recover from mental health difficulties. A few years later I became unwell and I remembered the place and managed, after a hard struggle with various agencies, to get a funded place. There can be up to 12 residents and 4 co-workers but it’s not like a national health institution at all, it’s exactly what it says it is – a community with a manager and an assistant manager, and everybody mucks in. Sometimes it’s hard to know who is a resident and who is a co-worker because everybody mingles and it actually doesn’t feel like you are any different to the workers, there’s no difference made. It makes you more at ease, and it’s an easier place to be because you have the freedom and the choice to do what you like.

I have never been a conventional person either well or not, but there’s a regular routine there, which is helping me to focus on what I need to change about my life when I get home in order to stay well. We have a lovely working day - our day here begins with a wake up call at 8:30am, help ourselves to whatever we wish for breakfast, then my chosen household chore begins at 9am to 9:45. Should I get through this faster than in the allotted 45 minutes, I then have time for a cuppa and a chat before the daily, week days only, community meeting. This is scheduled for 9:45-10:30 am, when we discuss what work needs to be done, G.P. appointments; anything and everything relative to that day is discussed. This meeting can often be shorter than its allotted time so again, should you choose, there is time for yourself and possibly another cuppa, just whatever you choose to do.

The work period begins at 10:30 until lunch at 12:30 with a break for tea/coffee in that time. We resume work at 2pm through till 4pm, this also has a short break for tea. When 4pm comes that is our working day done and our time is our own to do with what we please until the evening meal at 5:30pm. We can go to the relaxation sessions and or training sessions before the meal any day we wish. It is not essential to join in with the work, depending on your health and medication, but because you are in a community you feel a certain responsibility to everyone else and you sort of fall into doing things. I mean, you’re no’ riddled with guilt or anything like that, but it’s a feeling of community and responsibility which, if you are sitting in your house on your own, or in a hospital bed, you don’t get.

And there’s work, there’s real physical work, which is certainly helping me more than just sitting around in a hospital or at home. It gives you a purpose. The cooking chores have really helped me. When I arrived I was just beyond cooking, I was beyond even making up a grocery list. And now I actually cook for twelve or fourteen people once a week, so it’s got me back into doing that. And I do find when I have had little trips home that I do cook when I’m home now, when before I just couldn’t get motivated. I’d just look in the cupboards and then shut them again and sit down and have toast. The chores have helped me to begin to build a bit of self-esteem. I’m a good baker, so I bake the cakes for everyone and folk will say, that was a lovely cake, I don’t say anything but secretly inside you are building that up.

Because the community is Buddhist based everybody thinks that you are spending all day sitting there cross legged and meditating and initially I think I imagined that it was going to be more like a retreat, but it’s not like that at all. The community is about basic common respect and being mindful of others. There is a meditation room there but it’s not the focus, and we could be just a bunch of students living together. The workers are all supportive and the support that they offer is built around you, if you need to do something nothing is too much of a problem. I have a fear of swimming and I go for hypnotherapy every week and in order to overcome my fear of water. I’d like to take swimming lessons, but alas the only time the swimming baths are open for lessons is Sunday morning and we don’t have a community at the weekend. Instead of just leaving it at that the workers are trying to find a way that I can start going to the lessons, and that’s nearly always the way. Having the other residents around you is good because we help each other. Sometimes it’s just practical information about benefits or treatments or whatever, but people support each other emotionally too. I guess that’s why the mix of people that there is in the community is good, because if you notice somebody is ill and needing support and you don’t feel you can cope with it yourself, you can go off and get somebody that you know can – whether it be one of the co-workers or another resident.

I’ve been there 6 months now and I’m enjoying the experience of my recovery journey. Recovery is definitely a journey, not just a mental health journey but a spiritual one also. So, living in the community has helped me with that. Recovery is not a set of stages that go from one to ten, it’s one to two to three, back to one again and up to five, and the community supports that and lets you work at your own pace. I think we are inspired by our environment, and right now the place is absolutely beautiful. It’s very peaceful and calm and you’re not in the middle of a town or stuck in the middle of a housing estate, there’s nature all around you. I believe in this environment, the elements, the air we breathe, and there I feel safe. That feeling is also related to the care that I receive there from staff and other residents, good care keeps you well and needs to be for as long or short a time period as suits the individual needs of the person receiving the care, for a hope of recovery.

This story was written based on this individuals interview for the SRNs narrative research project entitled, 'Recovering Mental Health in Scotland'. More information about the project can be found in the Narrative Research Project section of our website www.scottishrecovery.net.

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Story disclaimer

The stories presented here are for information only. They are meant to inspire hope and show that recovery can and does happen. The stories highlight various examples of recovery and we do not advocate any of these experiences as the ‘right’ way to recover. Recovery is an individual and unique process, each person must decide for himself or herself what will work for them. Please carefully consider any decisions you make about your own recovery and consult with someone you trust if you feel unsure.

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