Essay on Mental Health and Illness: Recovery and Lived Experience

This essay delves into the multifaceted aspects of mental health and illness, emphasizing the concept of recovery as a personal journey. It highlights the significance of community support and individual effort in overcoming mental health challenges. The essay explores various mental disorders, in...Read More

Running head: MENTAL HEALTH AND ILLNESS 1
Mental health and illness
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Mental health and illness
Recovery from mental illness is portrayed as a personals journey of an individual. The
journey requires not only the medication from the nurses but also individual's efforts in fighting
against the horrors of mental illness (Drake & Whitley, 2014). Support from the community is
also essential as it affects the psychology of the sick person. Mental health can be defined as the
well-being of person’s way of thinking associated with his or her ability to maintain the daily
activities (Halter, 2017). Other researched disorders are mood disorders and anxiety disorder.
The disorders are caused by the biological, psychological and sociological factors. Some of the
causes which trigger illness include; lifestyle, chemical balance, genetics, attributes, life
experiences and personal stress (Townsend & Morgan, 2017). The essay covers the concept of
lived experience on mental illness and examples from Sandy Jeff illustrations in the argument
about mental health. Elaboration of the concept of recovery and outline of main ideas depicted
from the framework of national recovery on mental health practices.
Sandy Jeff used poetry as a way of expressing her lived experience with the
schizophrenia. The concept of lived experience on mental illness is important today as it
provides valuable knowledge to medical professionals. Mental disorders incidences are on the
rise globally. The illness affects anyone regardless of ethnicity, gender, age and class (Rogers, &
Pilgrim, 2014). Sandy Jeff was diagnosed with Schizophrenia at the age of 23 years .So, it was
about 17 years suffering from psychotic disorder without nothing happening. No hope to get out
of bed and no meaning of life.
Discrimination and stigmatization from the society is the challenge experienced by
mentally challenged people. For instance, they are abandoned by family members as well as

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most of their friend. As a result, they are left with nobody to talk to or to share with. This results
in loneliness and later making them even more depressed (Perry & Pescosolido, 2015). Sandy
Jeff was full of phantoms and spooks in her mind that further led her into the miasmic chaos that
partially obscured her actual life. According to Sandy Jeff, mentally ill people will not employ
you because you are mentally ill. They stigmatize you and you feel that stigma within the
community (Jeffs, 2002).
Living with mental illness poses a number of challenges they faced daily livelihood.
Sandy Jeff, mentioned in the ‘madwoman in this poem', personal hygiene, food, finance,
isolation, addiction, rape, loneliness and lowered self-esteem are some of these challenges. The
madwoman lived alone she was isolated from her husband and children. She was lonely and
often missed her family as she kept waiting to receive a letter from her family members. Since
she never had anyone to support her, she opted to beg for money in the streets. She was
traumatized and involve herself in drug abuse. As a result, forced to drink beer from the
discarded bottles and also begs on the streets to get some money for buying cigarettes. The
family never responded while her troubles persisted even more. Eventually, she had nobody offer
food, therefore she had to scrounge the garbage bins to collect some (Jeffs, 2002).
With respect to Sandy Jeff, isolation and loneliness will decrease the confidence of a
mentally challenged person. She claimed that most of her recovery was boosted by some of the
members in the society like her close friends. These people gave her a home, comfort and
supported her when she was struggling her recovery journey. She believed that creating
awareness will significantly help to dissolve the isolation feeling experienced by mentally sick
individuals (Jeff & Leggatt, 2014). During nursing care, family members and friends are

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important since their support will have a significant impact on mental health. (Goldberg &
Huxley, 2012).
According to the Council, A. H. M. A. (2013) the recovery-oriented principle practices
were formulated to enhance the recovery process. These principles serve as the guidelines for
mental health nursing. The principles that are currently put into practice in recovery-oriented
practices are personal uniqueness, real choice, respect, recovery evaluation and creation of a
partnership.
The process of recovery chiefly concerns the uniqueness of an individual. As illustrated
by Sandy Jeff, the individuals' self-determination is vital in self-discovery process. Medical
practitioners should, therefore, focus on building the self-confidence of the individual, thus
nurturing their efforts toward the recovery process. Sandy Jeff explained that psychiatric
professionals focus on attempt several medications so as to estimate the most effective one in the
treatment of mental illness. She claimed that the basis of recovering from mental illness is the
creation of identity.
The identity is created in numerous ways, for example, having a good relationship,
participating in cultural and sports activities, working and interacting with people. Self-
worthiness gives innate feeling to certain individuals. Identifying oneself will empower an
individual to persevere the difficulties face every day (Slade & Longden, 2015). Sandy Jeff said
that before finding her identity, she used to feel invisible when no one talked to her or even
noticing her presences. Consequently, she would find herself in the misery of madness then
subsequently hospitalized. She elaborated that identity makes the inner world to flourish since it
determines how one relates to others as well as view yourself (Jeffs, 2002).

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Respect enhance self-worthiness as well as creating the identity. Effective treatment
should help in identification of the captive spirits and facilitate understanding and respect. Sandy
Jeff in her stories, she insisted on the treatment that enables individuals to overcome illness and
regain the ability to contribute to the community. She found purpose in life through poetry.
Poetry was her means of expressing her mind to the world. She found a friend how continuously
supported her in publishing the written poem. Poetry was the tool she used in discovering her
identity (Jeff & Leggatt, 2014).
Medical practitioners should allow the individuals to make their own and real choices.
Since they undergo a unique recovery process, the choices on setting goals and having ambitions
are personal. Sandy Jeff was unique and in her own way she chooses poetry to facilitate her
recovery journey.
The mental health practitioners should establish good communication and partnership
with the mentally challenged people. Effective communication enables the nurses to understand
the need of the sick people. Sandy Jeff wept in the day room when the woman came late in the
night brushed her hair and comforted her. She felt sense of love and wished she never
embarrassed her self during the mental disease experience (Jeff & Leggatt, 2014).
Evaluation of the individual's recovery process is monitoring at every stage, to evaluate
whether or not the individual is recovering progressively (England, 2016). From the Sandy Jeff's
story, personal recovery is unique to every individual. She claims recovery is measured in
different ways. Getting out of the bed was part of progress to her.
The document of Recovery-oriented practices in the national framework combined a
number of recovery-oriented practices. The practices are meant to improve mental healthcare

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service delivery in Australia. The document has elaborated a number of practices which are
important to recovery. Such practices are like interacting with a set of capabilities for recovery-
oriented practices. Among the recovery-oriented practices in the national framework is the
language that gives hope and aids in the growth of culture, prioritizing the clients, providing
support, enhancing commitment as well as diversity in the organization to address mental health
and recovery (council, 2013). For instance, the empowerment to Sandy Jeff was through hope
and support from her friends who natured her attitude and helped her to prioritize her work in the
poetry. The recovery-oriented practices provided support and facilitated her with rehabilitation
through which her medication was closely monitored.
In conclusion, mental illness and recovery encompass efforts applied by the individual,
medical practitioners and the community support. Lived experiences of people with mental
health problems such as Sandy Jeff have significantly added value to recovery practices. Such
knowledge has enlightened medical practitioners on how to solve mental illness since they can
now understand what goes on in the minds of their clients.

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Reference
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https://youtu.be/q-MS4Sbv8Ng
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