| Recovery in mental health is not used in the same | | | | field, go on to say that recovery is a non-linear |
| manner in which one typically views recovery. | | | | process where one progresses from lower to |
| Webster defines recovery as: | | | | higher levels of fulfillment in a number of metrics. |
| 1) a return to normal conditions | | | | In short, recovery is a sliding scale process driven |
| 2) an act, instance, process, or period of | | | | by the consumer, rather than scheduled out by |
| recovering | | | | the mental healthcare practitioner. |
| 3) Something gained or restored in recovering | | | | Thus essentially, recovery from a mental illness is |
| 4) The act of obtaining usable substance from | | | | not equated to being cured, it means living a |
| unusable sources, as with waste materials | | | | meaningful, fulfilling life regardless of, rather than in |
| These definitions are problematic. What is a | | | | spite of, one's mental condition. Interestingly |
| normal condition? When is one done with | | | | enough, cultural differences do exist in the |
| recovering? What is gained or restored? And how | | | | meaning of what 'recovery' and mental health |
| could you even begin to refer the human mind as | | | | recovery actually is. New Zealand, which recently |
| unusable? | | | | mandated all mental health facilities adopt a |
| Consequently, the concept of mental recovery | | | | recovery-based approach, views recovery as a |
| was coined by Pricilla Ridgeway as "an ongoing | | | | merging between psychoanalysis and cultural |
| process of self directed healing and | | | | recognition. The U.K. agrees with New Zealand in |
| transformation." The Mental Health Center of | | | | believing that recovery is a systematic concept |
| Denver, or MHCD, the home of some of the | | | | (thus including one's environment and culture), |
| leading researchers in the mental health recovery | | | | rather than an incidental one. |