What Progress and Recovery Looks Like with Bipolar Disorder

Sometimes I wish that I had a disease like cancer instead of bipolar disorder. It’s not because I think cancer is an easier illness to treat or has better outcomes; it’s because a doctor could run tests and tell me if I’m doing better, worse, or the same. That definitive test doesn’t exist in the treatment of any mental illness. Even the diagnostic criteria are based on self-reporting and observation. Because of this, people living with bipolar disorder need to find other ways to both see progress for themselves and show others they are improving. It was four years from the time I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder until I reached recovery. While there are many definitions of the word recovery, for me it means spending the majority of my time living my life, rather than managing bipolar disorder. It’s important to note that four years is not an uncommon amount of time for this. I point this out not to discourage people, but to show that it’s important to locate markers of success along the way and to accept that this is a long process. I’ve worked with many people who believe themselves to be failures because they aren’t well in a short amount of time. Such a perception would have prevented me from ever considering myself a success because the negative feelings alone would have been too much to overcome. It may sound a bit trite, but there is power in acknowledging the strides we are making toward recovery. Defining Progress with Bipolar Disorder Early on in...
Source: World of Psychology - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: Bipolar General Mental Health and Wellness Peer Support Success & Achievement Bipolar Disorder Depression Recovery Milestones Progress Success and failure Source Type: blogs