What a crazy idea, crazy enough that it just might work!

The first, and most important thing here is that mental illness is not a life sentence it can be beaten and you can recover. I haven't taken medication for nearly 2 years and I don't see a psychiatrist. I no longer suffer from schizophrenia and I do not have the illness anymore.

A lot of people aren't aware that people who are diagnosed with mental illness (especially psychotic disorders like schizophrenia) can and do recover. People can and do, cease treatment and return to living their lives, illness free.

But, these things do not happen over night they take a lot of hard work and sacrifice. My recovery journey took nearly 18 months.

People often ask what recovery is and how do you define it. The answer is somewhat complex, in that the definition of recovery is different for each person. Recovery is a lot like happiness because happiness varies from person to person and each person defines their own happiness. Just like you have to make yourself happy, you have to make yourself recover.

To say that today you are recovered and yesterday you weren't makes little sense. As does expecting that someone can outline a set of criteria, and if you answer yes to all the questions, then you are recovered. That is as foolish as when you get diagnosed with a mental illness, you answer yes to a few questions and then you start defining yourself by your illness. Yesterday I was just me, today I am a schizophrenic or, yesterday I wasn't recovered, today I am. Neither fits quite right.

However there are some commonalities between people who have recovered. These are generally in the way they approach their life.

Therefore my definition of recovery is this:

Recovery is when a person regains the power and ability to make independent decisions and control their life, so that their future once again presents endless possibilities.

Recovery is when hope and optimism turn into a concrete understanding that you can achieve the life you always wanted and that your future is not set in stone, nor is it defined by your illness.

Recovery is liberation from the mental illness, so that the illness no longer controls you, but you control the illness.

So recovery is not when a person completes activity A, or passtime B. Recovery can't be defined by having a job, or going to uni, I did both of these but wasn't recovered. Recovery is when you choose what you want to do and when you become motivated and confident to make these choices, regardless of what they are.

Each person will have a different journey with a different recovery, however it is power, hope, optimism and liberation that return when you recover from mental illness regardless of where your recovery lies.

All of these things happened for me over about an 18 month period, one manifested into the other until I was fully recovered.

One of the major things that I learnt through my journey was that the only person that can cure your mental illness is you. Mental illness is not like a heart condition that someone can operate on, or a knee reconstruction, no-one can come along operate on you and hey presto, mental illness gone.

You have to do it yourself. The people who have supported you until now will continue to support you along the way and pick you up when you fall down, but they can't take this journey for you. I walked this path by myself, I had no carer, no girlfriend or partner or anyone who understood what I was dealing with, but if I can do it then so can you.

It will be the hardest journey of your life, but it will be the most rewarding journey of your life, because you will get your life back.

At first that seems daunting, but, when you realise that you are the only person that can make this happen, then the recovery journey has begun. Once you realise that you are the only person that can get your life back, then you soon realise that you can get your life back and you can start to recover now.

Your recovery journey stars with you and ends with you. You can recover, and you will recover, and the first steps begin now.

People Like You offers recovery based training programs for consumers and recovery based training for mental health workers. All recovery programs will equip the participants with the necessary skills and knowledge needed to enable recovery.

Consumers gain skills that they can use on their recovery journey. Mental health workers gain skills to create an environment that actively promotes and provides the framework for recovery.

Click here to go to the training program page.

Or email here for more information.

To read more about my recovery click here.