Routes to recovery

15 Apr 2011 2 Comments

by Roger Smith in Thinking / Knowledge Tags: Eliminating Bipolar Diagnosis

We need to choose a path

How many ways can people recover after a diagnosis of bipolar disorder?

There may be as many different ways as there are people on the planet.

Usually the patient only has one route to recovery put in front of them.  In the UK diagnosis tends to go with medication. The chances are that the offer of  diagnosis is accompanied by an offer to stay on a particular medication or take an alternative medication.

Did you noticed that I said, “offer” twice there? Most people seem to say that we were ‘given‘ a diagnosis. An alternative view is that a  diagnosis is offered. This means the patient can accept or reject the offer.

I going to suggest this can allow routes to recovery to be split between two main options…

1. Those who try to recover having accepted the diagnosis more or less describes what they want to recover from.
2. Those who try to recover having accepted they can do a lot to improve their health, well-being and happiness even though the diagnosis on offer probably does not describe what they want to recover from.

Not everyone will be clearly taking option 1 or option 2 and recovery. Other variations include, ‘a bit of 1 and a bit of 2′, whilst patients who fail to understand the concept of diagnosis or that they do have issues to be address might be said to not be in recovery? I am sure that is debatable.

To sum up: Acceptance is an important concept in recovery, yet acceptance of diagnosis certainly is not the only route to recovery.