- I also find it hard to embrace the 'deep rest' fluffy version of this poster as chronic insomnia is something I battle to this dayeven though I am in 17 years recovery.
- It is not just a recovery that is substance free but it is a recovery that involves managing my bi-polar, anxiety/panic, trauma shadows/fragments and additionally being a bereaved mother for 12 years of that 17.....so I also have a complex layer of grief/loss & bereavement that feeds into my mental health care and not relapsing.
- I find I have to work very hard and be dedicated to my self-management and that in itself can be exhausting.(hardly the rest that the poster alludes to)
- The poster also seems to give a mixed messaging that 'we choose' to enter into rest because "we are exhausted by the weight of our identity." I did not find I had a lot of choice in general, but certainly I did not choose mental illness.
I am a firm believer in providing hope but it has to be 'real'. This 'fluffy' version just minimizes our painful journeys and our tenacity to keep getting up.
Betty-Lou Kristy
PROVIDING EVIDENCE from community to systems level policy, planning & governance