Resolve Our Pain

A mental illness will harm you on an emotional level. It is not just by virtue that I have a disability that my life is affected by schizophrenia. Recovery is the act of saying to yourself "I will no longer allow my illness to dictate my life, I will move on." It may take years of saying this to ourselves before it becomes reality. We must heal to resume a normal and productive life.
The time we spent in recovery is not wasted. Our recovery can serve us to see the world in a new light. It can be empowering. The trying experience of having a mental illness can teach us many valuable lessons. Although we might not wish a thing like a mental illness on anyone else. It is part of our experience and is thus worthwhile.
All the individual pieces of a person's experience are necessary. We are all unique and wonderful in our own way. All of what we have done, seen and experienced is part of us. Those of us whose lives have been affected by mental illness needed this experience to be whole. We need to see ourselves in a new light that has emerged from tragedy to fully heal the wounds or our illnesses. It is this way that we can resolve the matters that have affected our lives and move on.