Voices Of Recovery

"My recovery has been such a life changing event...I never even imagined I would be able to live a life where I had a job, I owned a house, I owned a car, I had friends...We haven't very much focused on recovery - recovery hasn't been an outcome that people have expected. They have expected stabilization or maintenance with medication."
Diana Kern (National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, Austin, Texas)

"Hope, in the form of support, encouragement, empathy, and nonjudgmental attitudes prodded me along the path of regaining my sense of self to the point where I could begin to believe in myself again, and yes, even to foster a sense of hope within myself...I know I would have never gained the insight necessary to live a meaningful life, if not for having first endured the bleak, stark reality that is mental illness."
Lisa Oswald (Adult Recovery Network, Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio)

"While [I was] in the hospital in 1993, my doctor told me that I would never be able to work again, that I would never be able to return to school, that I would have to take medications the rest of my life and that it was not safe for me to live in my own apartment...I've worked full time since 1995, I've been free of medications since 2001, I bought my first house in 2002, and recently I began looking at my options related to finishing my doctorate...I have a life in front of me that I define and that only I can limit. Recovery is, against all odds, reaching my full potential!"
Renée Kopache (Hamilton County Mental Health Board, Cinicinnati, Ohio)