What's Holding You Back From Full Recovery? Oh ... People.

I read with interest John McManamy's post, "Blueprint for Recovery -- YOU Are the Authority" for several reasons. First, because I'm learning that very lesson over and over and over again ... not only with my mental health, now, but with several other health conditions. I just can't get over how much the doctors don't know. It really astounds me, and frightens me ... because I feel like if I don't do the research and legwork, I could be given inaccurate information.

John writes about the results of his March survey:

"What is holding you back most in your recovery?" I asked you over the month of March. Readers were free to check off as many of the nine answers as they wished. (169 respondents accounted for 490 answers, averaging 2.9 answers per person.) You could have knocked me over with a feather with the results:

Only 35 percent of you checked off, "Unresolved illness symptoms." In other words, a full 65 percent of you felt that your illness no longer posed an obstacle to your recovery.

Does this mean psychiatry has a high success rate? Um ... not exactly. In my January survey, only 14 percent of you told me that you "were back to where [you] wanted to be or better than [you] ever could have imagined."

What is going on here? Could it be that we have other stuff we need to deal with? This is where it gets interesting:

Fifty percent of you (representing by far the largest total) responded that the thing holding you back the most is "fears/difficulties in dealing with people." Very closely related (at 35 percent) is "bad living/work/etc" situation.

Clearly, we have major interpersonal issues that need addressing. Without doubt, our respective illnesses play havoc with our ability to get along with people. But you are telling me that people problems have taken on a life of their own, and it's not hard to imagine why.

I wasn't surprised, really, at these statistics. Because anytime I get real honest with you all about a friendship with which I'm frustrated or a boundary problem, or (let's not forget!) family of origin issues, I know you're right there with me. You feel the pain as if it's your own.

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