You
may see someone pacing back and forth talking to themselves and you may think
to yourself ‘oh they’re not all there’ or you see someone who is clearly strung
out on drugs and may think to yourself
‘why would they allow themselves to get that bad’. The
thing is, it’s not that cut and dry and mental illness is not to be taken
lightly. You see, mental illness has no face to it. It can affect anyone, and not only the
individual suffering from it but everyone in their support system. According
to NAMI mental illnesses are medical conditions that disrupt a person's
thinking, feeling, mood, ability to relate to others and daily
functioning. This can be caused by a
chemical imbalance or may be triggered by a situational occurrence.
I
had the wonderful opportunity to have two guest speakers from NAMI’s “In Our
Own Voice” program speak to my class this week.
It was very interesting to hear the two very different personal stories
of our guest speakers. One of the speaker’s mental illnesses can be
contributed to a chemical imbalance but was exacerbated by the death of his
entire immediate family while the other’s mental illness can be contributed to
a situational occurrence. Although
their mental illness diagnoses were different they both attributed their
success with leadng productive and meaningful lives to their coping strategies
and their support system.
According
to the National Consensus Statement on Mental Health Recovery, mental recovery
is defined as “a journey of healing and transformation enabling a person with a
mental health problem to live a meaningful life in a community of his or her
choice while striving to reach his or her potential.” This goes hand in hand with the philosophy of
occupational therapy and as OT practitioners we can use our therapeutic use of
self to develop the skills of our clients and encourage clients to engage in
activities that are interesting and meaningful to them. But most importantly we can educate and
encourage our clients to meet their personal goals for recovery.
http://www.mentalhealth.samhsa.gov/media/ken/pdf/SMA05-4129/trifold.pdf
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