The Mental Illness Recovery Paradox

"Most people think the hardest part of a mental health crisis is the illness itself. In my case that would entail the acute experience of psychotic depression. And it is often true that acute mental ill health is extraordinarily disorienting and frightening. I wouldn't wish my previous symptoms of psychotic depression on anyone and they have been the hardest experience of my life."

"Shame has a way of arriving late to the party. It waits until the crisis settles a little, your thinking clears, and the world expects you to "be on the road to being yourself again." And that's precisely when shame hits the hardest with its sting and long tail. This is the recovery paradox: shame often peaks after symptoms improve, not during the crisis. And this paradox, often silently, slows full recovery or successful management for many people with lived experience of mental illness."

Shame typically intensifies after acute symptoms of mental illness begin to improve, creating a recovery paradox where shame peaks as cognitive clarity returns. During a crisis the mind focuses on survival, leaving little capacity for self-evaluation, but as thinking clears self-judgment and social comparison increase. Shame and stigma quietly impede full recovery or successful management, often exerting more influence than the symptoms themselves. Shame is a common and predictable aftermath of a mental health crisis rather than an indication of personal failure. Normalising mental health struggles reduces the magnitude of shame and can accelerate recovery.

Read at Psychology Today