Is everything moving in the wrong direction? Is your health falling apart? Let’s be frank: Nobody ever said recovery or healing are easy things to do. In fact, progress and lasting gains to better health and wellness are the most difficult tasks we have as people with regenerative aspects to our bodies that can mend and heal.
Total recovery is the complete mobilisation of your resources to maximise the potential for your gains in healing. To truly make gains when our bodies are pitted against death or risk of serious illness, experiencing improvement in our health condition may truly mean there can no obstacle in your path to recovery.
Success and better health outcomes will depend on our capacity to identify problems ahead, problems at hand presently, and produce solutions quickly before other issues become complications in our treatment and ongoing recovery.
I am not suggesting murdering people or groups that you are angry at or believe may be holding you back, but instead to mobilise all your resources to achieve your goals. Total health and healing, real recovery means taking all the unknowns and revealing them as markers and metre sticks to measure our gains and decrease the risk of relapse.
To identify all available resources at your disposal, you have to be creative. What don’t you need in your life to continue moving forward healthily? What can you cut out that is holding you back? What can you supplement that is working well to amplify your chances for success? This will be critical in sustaining treatment and maintaining the stamina you need to make those reasonable and lasting changes in your life to experience more success in recovery. Are you resource-deprived? Poor? Homeless? Are you having trouble navigating the system without help?
Ask for help. This may mean reaching out and calling your case or care managers; daily if necessary. I’ve seen and done this myself. Your point person should be on redial until you are on the road to more stable living. Once you are well on your way to your goals, consider easing up on your supports, but truly think about how to reconfigure them to match your new adjusted goals. Getting to know and familiarise yourself with the system can be difficult.
Make connections, network, and build alliances around you. Get to know entitlements available for your disability and what you need to do to qualify.
All this information is available through different government agencies depending on which system your disability or treatment is a part of, and the provider within the system can start the process and get the ball rolling to keep your recovery moving along without incident.
While there are still resources available for you if you connect with key players in the systems that serve your special needs group, there may be qualifying hoops to jump through and steps ahead of you, so start early and be prepared for delays. By being prepared for systemic delays and red tape to clear will likely reduce gaps in your treatment due to non-payment of fees associated with treatment.
Commitment to care, adherence, and radical acceptance will be vital to preserving your belief in a positive outcome. It’s easy to disbelieve in recovery if you aren’t sticking to your treatment and completing your objectives in care.
Don’t expect results if you aren’t focused on your treatment and adherent to the recommendations of providers. Once you’ve evaluated the risks and benefits of your treatment path, complete the entire journey (your prescribed care) until you’ve reached your goals. Listen, you can still turn this around, it’s just going to take everything you’ve got.
Max E. Guttman, LCSW is a psychotherapist and owner of Recovery Now, a mental health private practice in New York City.
