The recession in my mind

The first night I was in hospital the chaplain called to see me. He was patient and he was kind but I remember little of what he said except for one thing which stuck in my mind. Just before leaving he looked me in the eye and said plainly and simply 'people do get better you know'. As frightened as I was at that time this was hugely reassuring and it still is.

Five months down the line his prophecy is proving to have been of substance - I am getting better. I will admit to not being 'out of the woods' yet but there are signs of improvement.

My mind is like the economy, it has been in recession and, just like the FTSE 100, although it is still bobbling about at the bottom it is beginning to climb back up. It may be slow and steady, but it is heading up nevertheless.

Sometimes it is helpful to set small targets and to take one day at a time. The downside to that is that on a bad day it is easy to feel you are heading downhill again. At the beginning of last week the FTSE 100 lost some of its new found ground but this week has shown that the trend is still improving.

Equally, one good day does not mean I am recovered from my poor mental health 'episode'. But the last couple of days I have been refelecting on the fact that one bad day during a recovery does not negate all the gains just as a bad day for the Stock Market does not mean the recession is starting all over again.

As I have started to feel better I have looked around me more widely, literally and metaphorically. What I need to do now is to start observing positive trends and not be disheartened when the dips occur. But, and it is a big but, if you are recovering from a poor mental health episode you have to believe that a bad day is simply that, a bad day and no more. You have to believe that just like the FTSE the overall trend can be up and the more you believe in it and work towards it the more likely it is to happen.