The unseen loneliness of the recovered patient
Why is it so hard to imagine a future without pain?
"I don't feel welcome or valued in mental health communities these days because I've recovered from my depression and don't want to talk about only my suffering anymore."
This is likely the saddest thing I've heard from a person with lived experience in all my years working in this space. Not all the stories of loss I absorb every day, not how systemic harm keeps people sick – perhaps because they have become so predictable, or maybe I have succumbed to compassion fatigue...
... but this account of how recovery – which ought to be the no-brainer holy grail of mental health care, something every human has the right to demand – can carry with it reverse stigma in a culture where suffering is beginning to get validated (apply the usual caveats about how privilege makes this easier)...
... and ceasing to suffer, embracing joy and not just baseline survival, trying to create a new narrative for yourself after years of battling your trauma script, frequently comes with great guilt and loneliness.
