Recovery from anything is a long road and one that needs to be taken at our own pace.
Well-intentioned advice from others is all well and good, but it is personal to us all and we need to feel in control.
There is no set pattern, no blueprint to follow, even if it is recovery from illness or physical injury, it is still the head and mind that needs to recover as well.
The same with depression and mental illness, it is at our own pace and the more people allow us to recover at our pace through empathetic support rather than autobiographical stories of how they did it or how others did it the better we feel.
We all feel vulnerable when we’ve been physically or mentally ill, we need to be listened to and understood, we need help when we ask for it and we need our time to get well.
The more we understand this the better we can be equipped to support others as often we all need someone to listen rather than fix.
Philip Dodson 