Flourish eMag Dec 24 - final - Flipbook - Page 26
The outcome
What is clear is that our expectations of a ‘fix’ are not
working and the mundane, messy, sometimes highly
traumatic business of life often remains just as it was,
a curiously necessary melange of elements searching
for meaning and place.
We’ve been seduced by a labelled sense of
ourselves. For many, sa琀椀s昀椀ed with their label,
have found certainty, some琀椀mes stretching
to be transforma琀椀ve - a framework of selfunderstanding and proven language to convince
and assuage others. But for others, it has led
to a distancing between our understanding of
a mental health condi琀椀on and how we de昀椀ne
ourselves within the context of having one.
We’ve become less able to understand the
parts of ourselves that we can’t change but
equally we’ve forgo琀琀en the parts of ourselves
that we can – with or without a mental health
diagnosis.
Julia Baird, in her new column “Staying Upright”
has wri琀琀en of the desire to show “how people
endure (or get through, become resigned to,
cope with, tolerate, make the best of) the
chaos, hardship and su昀昀ering that we inevitably
face in this world.” This is a brave, and much
needed ini琀椀ate to talk about what works within
the messy less than perfect real world.
What I speculate is that for anyone interviewed,
the beginning of their ‘ge琀�ng through' was
when they realised it began with themselves
and the choices and decisions they could
make at each stage of ‘recovery’. That might
have been as basic as choosing to listen to
someone, or choosing to be led by someone
towards professional support; or it might be
as sophis琀椀cated as mindfully medita琀椀ng each
morning on what direc琀椀on to choose towards
wellness throughout the day. It might be none
of these things, but this ar琀椀cle presents the
strategy of accountability as key to anyone’s
recovery and process of ‘staying upright’.
Unfortunately accountability has become such
a dirty word in so many contexts - poli琀椀cal,
personal, organisa琀椀onal and psychological.
And yet, in the right context, it is the only
strategy we can ever make when we begin our
journey through a mental health condi琀椀on or
through the travails of a human life. Except
in a clinical context when the ability to make
decisions for our own wellbeing is severely
compromised, the choice between moving
towards wellness instead of illness is made by
every human almost every hour of our lives. It
comes down to a prac琀椀sed self discipline learnt
over many years. O昀琀en we will stumble and
need the sturdier arms of loved ones around us
to guide us towards the right direc琀椀on. At other
琀椀mes, it will be the small, con琀椀nuous, ever
repeated steps we consciously choose towards
the func琀椀onal rather than the dysfunc琀椀onal
that will see us through.
