Under Construction - MHWA Retreat

What does recovery mean to you? To me, recovery is learning detachment, learning to let go of yesterdays failures, fears, superstitions, and dogma. This isn't easy because sometimes our fears encourage us to hang onto the past, without considering that past hurts and hatreds hold us back for experiencing life to the fullest. Fear prevents us from getting ourselves together and moving forward into the unknown future.

Do you think recovery is realistic for your condition(s)? Yes, I believe recovery is realistic in any conditions. I don't think recovery is easy. I believe that the desire to recover is the first step to recovery. If a person doesn't, for some reason, want to recover, otherwise it is virtually. Even when a person wants to recover it is difficult, however, it is not impossible when the desire to recover is present.
         Why or why not? Sometimes I find myself falling back into the old modes of thinking and withdrawing into my imaginary world. What causes this? Fear, stress, and confronting similar situations that caused this action in the past.

If you have already recovered from a mental illness, how did you do it? I am on the road to recovery.
         What advice do you have for those with your condition(s) who are still suffering? My only advice is don't give up. Pray, meditate (if possible), and find a way to redirect your fantasies into something that will help both you and humanity.

If you’re in the recovery process, what are you actively working on and how is it going? Over the next nineteen day (March 2-20) I plan to bring my thoughts back to the present by redirecting them into payer, reading the sacred scriptures, and writing. I want to attempt meditation if I can find a method that works with my continually running thoughts. Methods that require me to blank out the thoughts don't work for me. I have to read, write, or pray; these methods work to prevent me from going off into my illusionary world. One of the biggest problems, for me, id discipline, when my mind withdraws I don't stop it immediately. I have to stop it immediately otherwise it continues to wander.