The experience of mental distress and recovery among people involved with the service user/survivor movement

Abstract

This article examines how the personal experiences of mental distress of people involved in the British service user/survivor movement were shaped or transformed by this involvement, and the impact of involvement on their recovery journeys. The analysis was based on 12 in-depth interviews with service users/survivors who are, or were once, involved with the service user/survivor movement. Three large themes were identified regarding the ways in which social movement involvement affected the personal experience of mental distress: (a) making sense and reframing mental distress, (b) the social experience of involvement and (c) identity and identity reconstruction. We discuss how some features of the service user/survivor movement, such as selfhelp, user involvement, the centrality of experience to collective action, and the range of political positions adopted by activists can affect experience and recovery in different forms. As an exploratory study that looks into a complex topic, our findings illuminate the ways of surviving, recovering and experiencing mental distress in the context of a significant social movement.

Locura y neoliberalismo. El lugar de la antipsiquiatría en la salud mental contemporánea

“…A través del activismo social y el apoyo colectivo, el concepto de "recuperación" expresaba un sentido alternativo acerca de las experiencias subjetivas sobre la locura, desde la reapropiación de los derechos humanos y reafirmación de la justicia social. De esta forma, el término "recuperación" que emerge en este contexto comprende un proceso de superación de las invalidaciones que experimentan las personas que presentan diferencias subjetivas al ser etiquetadas por motivos psiquiátricos: experiencias negativas relacionadas al rechazo y el estigma social, tratamientos iatrogénicos, prácticas abusivas sostenidas por profesionales y daños en la autoestima causados por los diagnósticos (Chassot y Mendes, 2015). En este sentido, los activistas del movimiento de "expacientes o sobrevivientes de la psiquiatría" comenzaron a utilizar el concepto de "recuperación" para describir un estado de equilibrio y bienestar que se lograba al superar las limitaciones que imponían las etiquetas diagnósticas en la construcción de su identidad así como los efectos indeseados producidos por los tratamientos psiquiátricos, como también el ejercicio de libertad y autonomía alcanzado tras abandonar el sistema de salud mental (Stastny y Lehmann, 2007).…”

Participatory Spaces of Mental Health Service User Organizations in the Post-deinstitutional Era: Mapping Roles and Challenges

“…Several studies describe the potential of MHSUOs to become arenas for experiential knowledge through providing space for sharing alternative narratives of self and recovery (Adame and Knudson 2007;Adame and Leitner 2008;Beresford and Branfield 2006;Chassot and Mendes 2015;Hoy 2014;Noorani 2013;Sapouna 2012;Woods 2013). Participation in countercultural communities in popular spaces, free from the involvement of the dominant system, is important in creating dialogical space for such alternative understandings of experience (Adame and Knudson 2007;Adame and Leitner 2008).…”

Acting as a Mental Health Expert by Experience and Its Impact on Social Identity

“…At the same time, experts by experience need to understand what tasks their work can extend to. In recent years, the positions of different types of knowledge and the roles of mental health experts by experience as part of mental health services have been studied intensively, especially in the field of survivor research (e.g., Brosnan & Kirby, 2016 ; Chassot & Mendes, 2015 ; Dasgupta, 2011 ). Experts by experience have been concluded to play an important role in reaching a better understanding of mental health problems and the ways to respond to them (Humpston, 2014 ; Sapiro & Ward, 2020 ).…”