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RECOVERY POSITION
By Sue Collins

I am a 35 year old woman who has suffered from "schizo-affective disorder" for 5 years, but for the last year or so have felt as though I am finally overcoming this illness.

This sense of recovery has come about through medication: it's been very much a trial and error affair with terrible side-effects on some drugs, before finding, with a good consultant psychiatrist (I've seen a few come and go over the years!), a combination that works well for me, with tolerable side effects.

Also invaluable were counselling, cognitive education, and my involvement with the "user empowerment movement" - I was employed by the NHS to give talks to mental health professionals, in which I tried to emphasise the service-user's viewpoint and rights while in the psychiatric system.

I am currently planning to write a book on "recovery from mental illness" and would be grateful if readers could send me their views on "recovery", including their own stories - particularly if they feel that they are on the road to recovery, or if they feel as if they have totally recovered, and how this came about.

Please contact me by writing to:
Sue Collins, c/o Perceptions Forum, Rethink, 15th Floor, 89 Albert Embankment, London SE1 7TP or by e-mail via the Perceptions Forum CONTACT page