PART VII: Cooperating With The Professional
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TREASURE: This time, I'd like to discuss a subject that is always difficult to talk about in our organization. Since Recovery is completely self-help, many of our members find it difficult to even bring up the subject of professional help.
PHIL: We should realize that because Recovery stands for self-help, and nothing more, there are services that our organization is not equipped to offer in matters of mental health. Diagnosis, treatment, medication, counseling, advice, etc., must be provided by professionals. And, it is well to remember that Dr. Low, who founded and developed the self-help method, was a psychiatrist.
TREASURE: Having been trained by Dr. Low, and having worked so closely under his supervision, as we mentioned in our last articles, Phil, you would naturally have a great deal of respect for the professional.
PHIL: It really goes deeper than that, Treasure. Having been a mental patient under Dr. Low's professional care, I know very well that had it not been for his professional treatment, I would never have been capable of availing myself of the self-help training offered by Recovery. You see, as I have mentioned so many times, prior to my Recovery training, I was taken to a psychiatric hospital against my will on three different occasions for treatment of mental illness. It was not until after my third hospitalization that I began attending the group meetings at headquarters every afternoon. In addition, I continued to see Dr. Low for professional treatment once a week.
At that time, I was still subject to delusions, though I was not aware that my thoughts were delusional. One afternoon, when giving an example, I began to discuss some of these ideas, not realizing that I was out of touch with reality. Someone on the panel said that they wouldn't know how to apply Recovery principles to the things I was talking about. The group then refused to allow me to continue with my example.
TREASURE: That was really a good way for the group to handle it, wasn't it?
PHIL: Yes, you might say, they handled it by refusing to handle it.
That afternoon when Dr. Low dropped in, someone told him about the example I had tried to give. He took me aside, and asked me to see him in his office that afternoon. Later, in his office, he told me that I should not attend the Recovery meeting the next day, but should meet him at the hospital for treatment.
TREASURE: By that time, you had some Recovery training. Did it help you in this situation?
PHIL: It certainly did! First of all, I understood my need for professional help was not a triviality; I willingly cooperated with Dr. Low. And, I had learned that my self-diagnosis of hopelessness; my prognosis that I would continue to return to hospitals for the rest of my life; and my fearful temper concerning treatment, were all nothing but discomfort. Finally, it had become my belief that the discomfort I experienced was a triviality. In contrast, the fact that I needed treatment was not a triviality, and I had to accept the authority of a professional regarding that need.
I guess you've heard me say it countless times, but it was then I learned to become a legitimate patient able to cooperate in taking care of my mental health; just as everyone should look after their physical and mental health. As you know, Recovery people tend to make their own diagnoses. It is important that we understand that this is sabotage. We are stepping into the physician's role. His part is to supply the field diagnosis--our part is to accept that diagnosis.
TREASURE: Can you tell us just a little more about how Recovery's self-help training aided you while you were under treatment? Specifically, how did you cooperate with Dr. Low?
PHIL: Well, for instance, I learned that by simply moving my muscles, I could go get the treatment I needed without working myself up. I learned that I could reject my previous belief--"once mentally ill, always mentally ill". I could experience the memories of past hospitalizations, and endorse myself for bearing the discomfort of those memories, without the fear of permanent handicap. When the thought came to me, I simply did not have to accept the belief that I would continue to be taken back to hospitals for the rest of my life.
TREASURE: At that time, did the stigma still bother you?
PHIL: Not really, you see by that time, I had learned to deal with the stigma through my Recovery training. I had learned to reject the ideas of self-blame and shame in connection with my mental illness. Instead, I could exchange that old belief for one I heard from Dr. Low at Recovery meetings. He told us that mental illness should be thought of in the same way that we think of pneumonia, or any other physical illness. It also helped me to do my part, to take responsibility for self-leadership in the trivialities of my everyday life.
TREASURE: I'm so glad that we have the opportunity to bring these important Recovery techniques into focus. Recovery is receiving more and more referrals from professionals who provide for their referred patients the type of help you received from Dr. Low. It is important for us to keep our efforts strictly within the realm of self-help at our group meetings. We must continue to remind ourselves, and others, that it is good practice to seek professional help for those conditions that are not trivial with regard to our mental health.
PHIL: As you said, this is a difficult topic for discussion. It involves distinguishing between what is trivial and what is not, and the realization that when needed-as my personal experience taught me--professional help is not a triviality!
TREASURE: Well, we've run out of space again. See you in the next issue.
PHIL: Okay, see you then!
