Many people who work in the behavioral health industry struggle with seeing the human experiences that connect each of us compared to the challenges and struggles that the people we serve overcome.

Last month I came across an editorial in the January 2007 issue of Psychiatric Services regarding recovery being an opportunity to transcend our differences. In the editorial, President of the American Association of Community Psychiatrists Wesley Sowers, M.D. states, “(w)e all have something to recover from, whether it is mental illness, addiction, physical disability, loss of loved ones, victimization, or loneliness. The list could go on.”1

Recovery is a common human experience. In order to overcome any of the challenges mentioned above we must use similar strategies to move forward in our recovery.

We need to appreciate that the challenges we face are no different from the challenges that face the people we serve.  For any of us to move forward we have to have hope and the belief that things will get better. It is with that hope and belief that people find the courage to accept responsibility for taking the necessary steps to move forward in their recovery.

When people recover from any of the challenges that life puts in our path we become part of a community in which we share the human experience.

As people who work in the behavioral health field and people who have received services move forward in their recovery it is important to remember the common human experience we all share.

People have stated that recovery from mental illness is different than recovery from substance abuse which is yet different from recovery of many of the challenges mentioned earlier. No matter the challenges that all of us face, the truth of the matter is that recovery from anything connects us to one another if we allow it to happen.

Recovery does not discriminate because of race, ethnicity or creed.  Recovery joins us in our common humanity. Dr. Sowers concludes his editorial with the following “(i)f we fail to recognize this capacity for recovery to unite us, we will have squandered a great opportunity to integrate our highly fragmented and siloed service systems. If we fail to understand that we are all engaged in a similar struggle, we will miss the opportunity to empathically engage those who seek comfort and hope.”1

As a person who has recovered from a serious mental illness, I continue to believe that “Together We Can Inspire Hope for a Better Life”.

Tom Kelly
Recovery and Resilience Advisor
Cenpatico Behavioral Health of Arizona

1. [(http://ps.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/reprint/58/1/5 retrieved December 4, 2008. PSYCHIATRIC SERVICES ? ps.psychiatryonline.org ? January 2007 Vol. 58 No. 1 (Taking Issue page 5)]

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