Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Recover From A Mental Illness

It is possible to recover from mental illness. The road to recovery is different for everyone, but there are key strategies you need to follow to successfully recover from mental illness. The recovery process starts with believing that you have the power to cope with your mental illness so that you can start living a full life again. With that in mind, follow the steps below to get on the road to recovery.


Instructions








1. Accept personal responsibility for your illness. Understand that it's up to you to follow a treatment plan and get help when you need it. Work closely with your doctor to devise a treatment plan to recover from the mental illness. Stick to your plan.


2. Educate yourself so that you know all about your mental illness. Understanding your illness can help you recover. It helps you make wise choices about your treatment and the way you live your life. Visit the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) website to inform yourself, find support and take action.


3. Get involved in education and support group programs for your specific type of mental illness. NAMI will assist you in finding local support groups and online communities and discussion groups to help you better recover from your mental illness.


4. Monitor yourself daily to begin recognizing which daily events may trigger or increase your symptoms. This can help you avoid those triggers completely, or at least recognize warnings signs that you may have an episode.


5. Develop coping strategies for unexpected situations that can trigger symptoms. Unexpected things happen in life that can throw anyone off their path. An argument with your spouse, job loss or a final notice on a bill could create stress and anxiety which in turn can trigger certain symptoms and behavior indicating mental illness.


6. Create a plan for dealing with situations where you realize you may be in trouble. Your plan can include contacting your spouse, a parent, trusted friend or doctor to help stabilize the situation so you can continue to recover from mental illness.


7. Build some form of exercise into your daily routine, even if you don't feel like it. Exercise releases endorphins which helps you feel better and can help you recover from mental illness. Go for daily walks or work with your doctor to come up with a realistic exercise plan to help in your recovery.

Tags: mental illness, recover from, from mental, from mental illness, with your, recover from mental