Dr. Abraham A. Low, M.D. Profile

The legacy of Chicago's Abraham A. Low, M.D.:
Recovery, Inc., an affordable mental health resource for patients

With each passing generation Recovery principles undergo constant rediscovery by both mental health professionals and lay people.

"There are no hopeless cases..." Abraham A. Low, MD

Chicago has a longstanding local resource for physicians with patients who want to work on their emotional problems in a supportive self-help group setting.

That resource is Recovery, Inc., an organization founded in 1937 by the late psychiatrist and Chicago Medical Society member Abraham A. Low, MD.

The article presented here will highlight methods and benefits of Recovery; physicians may decide if they want to recommend Recovery to appropriate patients.

A worldwide organization with headquarters on Chicago's near north side, Recovery is a cornucopia of self-help methods and techniques that parallel those used in cognitive therapy.

The program uses surprisingly simple methods to help people dislodge themselves from emotional ruts.

The process begins by learning to modify thoughts and behavior. Patients meet in small groups to examine the distressing trivialities of everyday life--an inconsiderate driver, a noisy co-worker--to show how symptoms can be triggered by anger and how to strengthen one's nervous system against them. The goal is to translate success in dealing with these trivial incidents into mechanisms for handling life's bigger challenges.

Following a structured framework, the program uses practical coping techniques and methods developed by Dr. Low as well as cognitive/behavioral therapies that can be used individually and in conjunction with professional help. The program avoids use of diagnostic terms.

The Recovery framework of observing behavior eliminates complexes, childhood memories, dream experiences and subconscious thought. Everyone is simply considered a "nervous patient" or "nervous person."

Recovery, Inc., is distinct from other groups that use the term recovery in their titles.

The issue of medication is never discussed--that's the physician's domain. Recovery is not intended as a substitute for professional care, but as a complement to it.

Here are some of the key components of the program:

• A first step in the Recovery process is to learn the "language" of Recovery or to use words that cognitively describe the disturbing events rather than emotionalize them. The philosophy builds on the principle that language frequently causes tenseness, which in turn reinforces and perpetuates symptoms. For instance, instead of describing oneself as "hopelessly overwhelmed" or a situation as "intolerably bad," a patient would be expected to describe, rather than interpret, the physical symptoms he is experiencing and the discomfort they produce. Members say it takes about four to five meetings before they begin to use the Recovery language.
• Another central concept is "spotting." Through spotting, patients identify inconsistencies and errors in their own language, whether conceived in silent thought or given formulation in vocal speech. Members use spotting techniques to counteract self-destructive inner voices.
• Humor is our best friend compared to temper, which is our worst enemy, according to Dr. Low. By that he meant being able to laugh at a trivial situation takes the "danger" out of an incident and helps the nervous patient avoid "working himself up."
• Participants can gauge and reinforce their own progress by following the basic Recovery wellness model that prompts them to describe how they would have handled a situation before coming to the Recovery group.
• Trained group leaders, who volunteer their time and have used Recovery, Inc., methods for their own mental health, run meetings according to the format established by Dr. Low.
• Recovery, Inc., meetings do not require a fee. Voluntary contributions are accepted. Meetings are open for observation by anyone interested.

Physicians and patients may obtain literature by contacting Recovery, Inc., 802 N. Dearborn St., Chicago, IL 60610; calling (312) 337-5661; faxing (312) 337-5756; or visiting the literature order page.

Securing inner peace

Through the Recovery process, patients learn to:

• Manage stress, panic, anxiety, depression, anger, irrational fears, phobias, compulsions, obsessions and other emotional/behavioral problems.
• Identify and manage negative thoughts, feelings, beliefs, and behaviors and replace them with healthy thinking and constructive activity.
• Face, tolerate, and manage functional complaints and psychosomatic symptoms such as heart palpitations, dizziness, shortness of breath, sweats, fatigue, headaches, numbness, chest pressure and sleep problems.
• Change how they react to people and situations over which they have no control.

How self-help examples are given

The Recovery wellness model consists of the following four parts: (1) identifying the incident that upset them; (2) describing the physical symptoms it created; (3) stating the Recovery principles employed to help the symptoms subside; and (4) measuring one's progress by describing how a situation would have been handled before Recovery.

The following is Lenore's personal example of the Recovery process at work:

1. The Incident: Lenore woke up on a workday feeling down and contemplated her options for the day ahead. While the incident may seem insignificant to most people, it was anything but insignificant to Lenore.
2. The Symptoms: Lenore became anxious, which physically manifested in the form of shortness of breath and perspiration. Additionally, her imagination was "on fire," which in the processing of her mind, led in a matter of minutes from her calling in sick to losing her job and becoming unemployed and homeless.
3. Employing the Recovery Principles: Lenore was able to calm herself down by using a Recovery, Inc., tool (referred to as "spotting") to identify recovery principles that help her change the way she thinks. Utilizing the Recovery method can help to diffuse the problem and aid in the assessment of the problem. Lenore identified that it is normal/average to wake up with these "lowered" feelings. Lenore realized that probably no one would notice if she were a few minutes late and that her co-workers would be grateful that she even came in at all. Lenore said, "Maybe my performance won't be perfect today but only average, but that's okay." Thus, Lenore "moved her muscles," another important Recovery concept. Lenore made it in to work. She may not have had a perfect day, but instead Lenore had a perfectly average day. She spotted that her feelings were "distressing" but not "dangerous," and she was able to bear the discomfort. She proved to herself that she could function despite her lowered feelings and she endorsed herself for her effort.
4. Before Recovery…"Without a doubt I would have called in sick," Lenore replied. Additionally, she said she would have anguished all day and might have even called in sick for the next couple of days. Recovery, Inc., helped her to stop working herself into a "vicious cycle." Lenore stated that, "one time I even quit a job because I missed a few days and I was certain that I would be fired. In actuality, my boss had no intention of doing so. I realized that as a 'nervous patient,' I am a good observer, but a poor interpreter."

   Seemingly simple tasks take on greater significance to the individual suffering from a nervous disorder or a mental illness. Recovery, Inc. helps to restore balance and perspective. In turn, the individual functions better at home, work and play.

   One person most impressed by Lenore's development/improvement was her psychiatrist of five years. She noticed that Lenore's perception of her symptoms were less severe and that a quiet strength had come over her. For Lenore, Recovery, Inc., helped her gain vision and was the missing piece to her overall personal wellness plan.

Frequently Asked Questions about Recovery

The following section answers patients' questions about Recovery, Inc.

If I come to group meetings, can I stop seeing my health-care provider?
No. Continue to see your mental health professional. Recovery members are not professionals and never diagnose illnesses or symptoms. Nor do they provide counseling or advice. When you're not sure if a symptom is caused from tension and strain or a physical ailment, it is recommended that you see your doctor for a diagnosis.

Are the group leaders health-care professionals?
No, they are not. All group leaders are trained lay volunteers who have experienced some type of difficulty with an emotional problem and practice the Recovery method of self-help.

What is the Recovery System?
The Recovery System is a compilation of many simple yet practical coping techniques. To gain inner peace, members learn how to change the way they react to people and situations that they have no control over. Members also learn how to identify and manage negative thoughts, feelings, beliefs, and behaviors that can lead to emotional distress and stress-related physical symptoms. The techniques are learned through regular attendance at meetings, studying the Recovery literature and daily practice.

What happens at a weekly meeting?
Each meeting has a similar structure: Members first take turns reading aloud a portion of one of the authorized books written by Abraham A. Low, MD, Recovery's founder, or they listen to one of his taped lectures. Members then volunteer examples that describe how they are using the self-help method to cope better. Other members then comment on the examples given. After a brief question period, the meeting becomes more informal and members may talk in small groups. There is an opportunity for the members to encourage and support each other.

Meetings are held in public buildings and last approximately two hours.

Are meetings confidential?
Confidentiality and anonymity are maintained. Recovery meetings are a safe place for people to express their feelings and report what upsets or frightens them in a structured format.

How will Recovery help me solve my problems?
Members learn specific strategies for coping with the stress and strain of everyday life. According to Dr. Low, there are no hopeless cases. Recovery does not deal directly with past problems or analyze the causes of problems.

What types of problems does Recovery help manage?
The Recovery Method offers techniques to help manage a wide variety of symptoms. It intentionally avoids making therapeutic distinctions based on diagnoses and instead focuses on helping members learn to cope more effectively with the symptoms that are common across many diagnostic groups. There are many nervous symptoms (symptoms of stress) which may interfere with one's life: tremors, fatigue, fears, panics, head pressure, head noises, dizziness, sweats, palpitations, difficulty in swallowing, light-headedness, obsessions, compulsions, depression, preoccupation, feelings of inadequacy, feelings of persecution, fear of crowds, bizarre sensations, fear of being alone, fear of fainting, unreality, and countless others. Members learn how to face and tolerate these nervous symptoms.

What can I do if I have a major problem?
Because members and group leaders are lay people and this is a self-help program, all members wanting additional help with a major problem are encouraged to seek advice from a professional.

When can I expect improvements in my life?
As you start using Recovery's stress management tools on a daily basis, you will begin to see improvements.

Is Recovery similar to the 12-step program used by Alcoholics Anonymous?
Recovery is not a "12-step program." Because of dual diagnoses, some members attend both Recovery and a 12-step group. Experience has shown that there is no conflict between the two programs.

Is religion part of Recovery meetings?
Although 70 percent of meetings are held in places of worship, religion is not discussed, nor is it a part of the self-help method. The Method does not conflict with any religion. People can seek their religious guidance from a source other than the meetings.

How do I get the Recovery books or find a local meeting?
There are four main books: Mental Health Through Will-Training, Manage Your Fears, Manage Your Anger, Peace vs. Power In the Family and Selections from Dr. Low's Works. Audiotapes and books can be ordered from Headquarters using the "List of Literature" order forms available at the meetings. In addition, some public libraries may have the Recovery books. For information, contact headquarters at 802 N. Dearborn St., Chicago, IL 60610; or call (312) 337-5661; fax (312) 337-5756; or go to the literature order page.

The Recovery Language

Here are some of the basic terms and concepts discussed at virtually every Recovery meeting. Angry temper--aggressive temper that comes into play when a person persuades himself that someone has done him wrong. It may appear as resentment, impatience, indignation, disgust, hatred, etc.

Fearful temper--Retreating temper in which a person believes he is a failure. This gives rise to moral, ethical and esthetic fears or to the fear of being a failure in pragmatic pursuits. It may express itself as discouragement, preoccupation, embarrassment, worry, hopelessness, despair, etc.

Lowered feelings--A state of depression or emptiness.

Nervous patient--A general term used to describe any person with emotional disturbances such as lowered feelings or angry or fearful temper. Recovery avoids terms like schizophrenia, depression, or borderline personality. The focus is always on replacing insecure thoughts with healthy habits.

Spotting--Checking the inconsistencies and fallacies of one's own language, whether in silent thought or vocal speech. Designed to reject harmful self-destructive inner voices.

Triviality--Everyday incidents and occurrences, routine human behavior.

Vicious cycle--A state in which the symptom increases the fear and the fear intensifies and perpetuates the symptom. An example would be the patient who has difficulty falling asleep. Lack of sleep in itself is apt to cause alarm. The alarm increases the difficulty of sleeping. Then more alarm, more sleeplessness and more alarm.

Working oneself up--Processing worry into a temper reaction, permitting oneself to become emotional and hysterical, fanning the lusty flames of imagination, giving oneself up to a temperamental reaction of anger or fear.

How did Recovery get started?

Recovery began as a research project directed by Abraham A. Low, MD, at the Psychiatric Institute of the University of Illinois Medical School, where he was associate professor of psychiatry and neurology and assistant director. In 1940, the Institute became an independent not-for-profit corporation.

Dr. Low developed Recovery as a supportive resource to sustain his patients both between outpatient visits and also after discharge from hospital care. He did not intend for it to replace therapy, which was to be left solely in the hands of mental health professionals.

In arriving at the Recovery process, Dr. Low relied on the emerging new science of semantics with its emphasis on the part language plays both in individual and group behavior. As part of this approach, he developed a special "Recovery" language that could be understood by all his patients and serve as a tool to overcome their problems.

In Dr. Low's own day, Recovery aroused much resistance among psychoanalysts and he was considered an outcast by many of his colleagues. Yet at the time of his death in 1954, more and more physicians were turning away from long complicated Freudian analyses to newer theories and methods of treatment. And with the recognition of the therapeutic value in interpatient relationships, group psychotherapy started coming into its own.

If Dr. Low were alive today, he probably would feel great pride that the American Psychiatric Association presented Recovery with its 2000 Arnold L. Van Ameringen Award for Excellence in Psychiatric Rehabilitation.

Dr. Low's background

Dr. Low graduated from the University of Strasbourg in 1913 and completed medical school at the University of Vienna in 1919. He then began a two-year internship at the Allgemeines Krankenhaus in Vienna. He obtained his license to practice psychoanalysis in 1922 in New York. Within a few years he moved to Chicago. In 1925 he joined the staff at the University of Illinois Medical School to teach neurology and do research in the field of histopathology.

In January 1931, Dr. Low became head of staff at the U of I's new Psychiatric Institute housed in a wing of the Research and Educational Hospital. He went on to establish Recovery in 1937.

Dr. Low eventually left the psychoanalytic method completely and for the rest of his life referred to himself as a clinical psychiatrist.

Recovery Inc., A Complement to Clinical Practice
By Earl N. Solon, MD

Dr. Solon, a psychiatrist in the Chicago area and CMS member, has sent his patients to Recovery Inc., for over 30 years. He has made the following comments about his reasons for doing this:

Recovery Inc., has been repeatedly 'discovered' over the years by individual professionals, but somehow never by the profession itself. Few psychiatrists have given Recovery close scrutiny. It exists enigmatically in the peripheral awareness of most clinicians, its potential for usefulness mostly not understood.

My interest in Recovery Inc., dates back to 1971. Since then I have dovetailed this resource with my clinical work and have developed a continuing respect for its helpfulness. With it, treatment is not only strengthened, but shortened and accelerated. The patient's suffering is abbreviated, remissions are reinforced, defenses against relapse are strengthened and the overall expense is reduced.

Schizophrenics are helped in maintaining contact with consensus versions of reality despite an overflow of internal stimuli that interferes with such contact. They find directions for sustaining contact with others despite the counter-flow of feelings of alienation.

Depressives become aware of alternatives to patterns of subtle self-injury and self-denigration. They learn to rebuild self-esteem in the face of depressive feelings that used to influence them to the contrary.

Phobic patients utilize Recovery concepts to evade damage to their self-image that previous indulgence in the phobia would deliver.

Neurotic patients, and even family members of patients, report personally beneficial illumination that enriches their own abilities to cope with the vicissitudes of the illness.

Recovery's equipment is simple. It consists of regular meetings in a consistent location, a body of structured and tested information, tools for coping, provision of a common language, and trained and experienced leaders.

In addition, Recovery supplies a system of philosophies and orientations, too numerous to describe here, which are useful in sustaining emotional equilibrium. In order to benefit from Recovery, its philosophies and orientations have to be put into use.

Basically, Recovery is a support and training process, useful in reinforcing the therapist's objectives in treatment, helping the patient sustain himself between visits and avoid acting out. With the enrichment from this support, therapy is accelerated, its overall cost is reduced and duration of morbidity is decreased.

It is a concept that has been ahead of its time but remains ready for practicable applications if professionals examine and appreciate its potential. For some of my patients, it has been the difference between their being able to function in society or being chronically disabled by illness. At its worst, when a patient fails to use it, the consequences of exposure to it are always benign.

Therapy itself seems to be the major benefit of Recovery, Inc. I see my patients in Recovery doing much better clinically than those with comparable problems not in a Recovery group.

Recovery is complementary to therapy and not competitive with it. It will be to our enrichment as professionals to be aware of its available asset to our patients' health.

All contents for this feature were compiled by Liz Sidney, managing editor of Chicago Medicine. Portions of this article were reprinted and adapted from literature published by Recovery, Inc., with permission by the Publisher. This article was featured in Chicago Medicine, vol.105, No.1.

Photos reprinted with permission from Recovery, Inc.

home | introduction | for guests | for professionals | for group members
group meeting | recovery resources | faqs | helpful links | contact us | site map