Recovery and mental illness: analysis and personal reflections.
My strong desire to enter the helping profession has been fuelled by my experiences as a consumer-survivor of the mental health system who is recovered and is symptom-free. And yet, driven by concomitant hopes of changing the system under which I found my care and the care of those around me to be flawed at best, and in order to relate to both consumers and practitioners the need for a recovery paradigm and for empowerment and hope, I found that in the academic world, I "passed." For fear of discrimination, tokenization, and the discreditation of my ideas, I took on the role of practitioner-in-training, never disclosing my identity as a consumer-survivor, no matter how much I felt this unique perspective could contribute to a discussion. I was torn. Had I not entered this field in order to bring about change and instill hope based on my story? Feeling hypocritical, I nonetheless decided that it would be best to delay self-disclosure until I achieved professional status.
University of Toronto. aschiff@hotmail.com
Anna Coodin
AC
Schiff
D000339:Affect; D003289:Convalescence; D006801:Humans; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy*; D009042:Motivation; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care; D012649:Self Concept; D020377:Self Efficacy