Problems with recovery! How to proceed?

So many of us complain about the waiting lists or the time it takes to get treatment. They see it as a barrier to ‘getting well’ but sometimes I wonder if we would actually be able to engage with the therapy if it were given as speedily as we would all like it to be.

But now on another waiting list I am left feeling that maybe the mental health service is in such a mess because the vast majority of ’the people’ in this world can’t define what’s wrong let alone have any idea of how to improve things. That actually the choice of therapy is about me being brutally honest with myself about how I feel/ have felt and to discuss the what’s wherefores and feelings I have still warring inside of me and then let someone else decide which is best.

So what is recovery?

Do any of us have any clear idea, my own personal statements on the matter run like this:

      ·        To not feel so bad about things all the time

·        On average to be able to enjoy being alive

·        To be able to forget my problems completely in the peace and happiness of the moment some of time

Did/ do I have any idea how practically to manage this?

No and I doubt very much that any of us does. Yet with no clear idea of what needs to be done to solve our problems we want others to have that knowledge and be able to implement the right choice for us and maybe that’s a mistake.

The belief that the answers are somehow known to the other person, the person with the qualifications and no to us mortals, that in fact we cannot know them or find them for ourselves seems to be quite prevalent but on what are we relying.

I don’t mean to imply that we shouldn’t need therapy or antidepressants or nursing support or a hospital stay but that actually we might need all of them to get to that recovered state and that what is the best course can only be found by ourselves by being brutally honest with ourselves and the people who are providing the help and support.

Surely we all need guidance, help and support but it is up to each of us to either accept it or not. However I am unconvinced that the people who need the help most are in the position to go and find it, (ie recognise which therapy or course of action to take) let alone accept it when they have. So why is proactive care is seemingly absent from the GPs surgery to the NHS as a whole for mental health services?

Or is it just that it seems that there isn’t. The answer so often seems to come back ‘Go and find it yourself’ which is all very well but surely with an integrated health service it might be prudent to actually give some time and money to the idea of providing the information so that people can. Choice is all very well but if you have to spend so much time finding out what the choices are then it becomes worthless to have it. We are ill when all said and done and where else do ill people look for help than the medical profession.

And as seen by this nurse people will do this if they have the information.

http://www.nursingtimes.net/nursing-practice-clinical-research/developing-a-mental-health-triage-service-in-primary-care/304625.article

Plus this news shows that proactive care may need fine tuning but certainly has an effect

http://www.mind.org.uk/news/5557_new_study_finds_increased_role_for_practice_nurses_in_treating_depression_has_mutual_benefits