Hope for recovery changes outlook for mental illness

     In July I attended the Ohio Advocates for Mental Health annual conference in Akron.  I attended a moving presentation, “Lost Suitcases, Recovered Lives:  Suitcases from a State Hospital.”  More than 400 suitcases, boxes and trunks filled with personal items which were taken from patients admitted to Willard State Hospital (opened in 1886 as the Willard Asylum for the Insane and closed in 1995) had gathered dust for decades.  Tipped off by a staff member who had stumbled upon them, A woman showing hope.

New York State Museum curator Craig Williams, psychiatrist Dr. Peter Stastny and mental health advocate Darby Penney spent eight years identifying to whom the items belonged and creating a moving story about these people whom society had banished.  Almost certainly the majority of these individuals who lived out their lives at the hospital could have been returned to meaningful lives in the community today.  Some should never have been there at all, having epilepsy or other conditions that were once categorized as mental illness.

     So what has changed for individuals diagnosed with mental disorders?  Our knowledge of the brain has vastly increased, pharmaceutical and therapeutic treatments are more sophisticated and effective, community health services have replaced routine institutionalization, and hope for recovery has become a powerful addition to our treatment of mental illness.   Once a diagnosis of mental illness was considered a terminal condition for which there was no cure; we now know that many people can and do recover from even the most serious conditions. 

       Hope is an essential element of recovery.  Researchers suggest that hope can improve prognosis in even life threatening illnesses and that hope is primarily generated in relationships.  Concentration camp survivor and Nobel Peace Prize winning author Elie Wiesel said, “Just as despair can come to one another only from other human beings, hope, too, can be given to one only by other human beings.”  This idea is validated in the research of Dr. David Spiegel and colleagues, who found that participation in supportive group therapy prolonged the lives of women with metastatic breast cancer an average of 18 months. 

     After several years of facilitating support groups specifically focused on hope, Canadian therapist Terry Simonik and her group participants developed the following tips for cultivating hope:

  • Practice hope.  Hope is found in stories.  Read stories about hope; write stories about hope; search for hope in all of your experiences.  Look at your own experience from the perspective of someone who has hope for you.
  • Telling and retelling our stories helps us to develop perspective and allows us to reinterpret them in a more compassionate way.  Ask yourself what a hopeful person would do in this situation and then try it.
  • Hope thrives in community; isolation breeds despair.  Hope is encouraged when we realize that we are not alone and when we are able to be honest about our experiences with others who are respectful and listen without judgment.  Any kind of positive group involvement can encourage hope.
  • Volunteer work and service to the community helps build hope.  Discovering that we have something of value to contribute to society despite our troubles reminds us of our intrinsic worth.
  • Humor encourages hope.  Whenever we can see the absurdity of life and engage with others playfully, hope is present.  Humor and laughter dramatically increase a sense of well-being and provide release from despair and pain.
  • Remember who you are without your troubles.  Problems and illness have a way of overshadowing all other parts of one’s identity.
  • In the film, “The Pianist,” based on the true story of a  Holocaust survivor, it is clear that his passion for music is what keeps his hope alive in the midst of unbearable suffering.  Ask yourself:  What is my passion?  What activities give me pleasure or allow me to feel most “at home” with myself?  Explore and rediscover your interests.
  • Thinking positively is essential to foster hope.   If we see our troubles as permanent and all pervasive, it contributes to a sense of helplessness.  All-or-nothing thinking needs to be challenged whenever possible. 
  • Practice mindfulness.  No matter what has happened in the past, we are always beginning anew.   No matter what you are doing, try to be more emotionally present by focusing your attention on the moment.  Yoga, meditation and prayer are a few of the ways we can increase mindfulness.
  • Choose your friends and caregivers with great care.  Surround yourself with people who encourage your hope.  Do not share your hope with people who you know will discourage or devalue it. 
  • Be aware of the power of your words.  The words we choose to describe ourselves and our experiences have a real and lasting influence on how we feel.  Search for and choose words that encourage hope.

     October 3 – 9 is National Mental Illness Awareness Week.  One in five Americans experiences a mental illness in the course of a year.  Mental disorders are the leading cause of disability in North America, Europe, and increasingly, the entire world.  No community or family is unaffected, giving us all the opportunity to offer our support and thereby, nurture and sustain hope.

Back / Home