The Metaphor of Reclamation
We live on the banks of the River
Tay in Scotland. Not far
from our home is the landing strip of Dundee airport. This was once
submerged beneath the estuary but, over many years, was gradually
drained, and protected from further flooding by a sea wall. What
once was lost from view - and was viewed as useless - was brought
into view, and transformed into something of great value. This work
was accomplished slowly, with great effort
and skill,
not to mention
at some considerable risk to the people involved.
This
provides a fitting metaphor for the process of
reclamation that is
possible for those whose lives have been submerged by the experience
of problems in living. In reclaiming their lives from the
waters of distress and difficulty, people bring to the surface a person who has, to
large extent, been lost from view: Lost from the sight of family and
friends if not also from themselves.
Reclaiming our Humanity
When people enter mental health services their personal identity
is submerged - not so much by their experience of their problems
in living but by bureaucratic labelling. They cease to be
'persons - with their own lives, loved ones and hopes and dreams.
Instead, they become 'patients', 'clients' or 'service users'. Through
this process the
individual person is rendered anonymous; becoming just another 'patient', or 'client' or
'service user'.
If people are to recover their lives, the
first thing they need to do is to
reclaim the
stories of their lives. They need to take back the stories
that belong to them as unique persons rather than anonymous
'patients' or 'service users'.
The Challenge of Reclamation
When
people reclaim their lives, they undertake the
lengthy, difficult and often threatening process of draining the
effects of various problems and difficulties from their lives. They
may not rid themselves completely of these problems. However, they begin to
transform something that
once was thought to be both meaningless and
worthless, into
something of great value if not priceless.
We have met and
worked with many people over the years who have helped us understand
what this process of reclamation means for them. Of course, it is
also something that means something to us. No one passes through
life without the experience of being being submerged by one thing or
another. Listening to other people we learned to appreciate what we
all had in common. - the personal and interpersonal effort involved.
We also learned about
how the reclamation attitude contrasts with traditional ideas of
helping the so-called ‘mentally ill‿ Most of all we were reminded
that
that we are all in recovery. Everyone struggles with something -
perhaps a variety of things. Things that haunt us - perhaps from our
past or perhaps right here and now; experiences that limit our capacity
to lead the kind of lives we want.
Hopefully, you will have met people who are involved
in reclaiming their stories, and are beginning to recover the whole
of the lives that once were lost from view. We hope that such an
experience of others will help you
become more aware of your own losses; parts of your own experience that may need reclaiming, as
part of your own recovery voyage.
