The phrase, “It’s not your fault,” has saturated the sphere of mental health to a point where it has become a banal platitude… but there is a reason for that: it’s true. Having a mental illness is never the fault of the sufferer; it’s a disease, and should be treated and respected as such.

I do, however, have something to add to the ‘it’s not your fault’ phraseology; I’d posit that a more effective mantra would be: ‘it’s not your fault, but it is your responsibility’. This may sound excessively harsh, but please hear me out.

A few months into my recovery, I was sitting in a peer support group when someone told me the following: “You can’t control what happens to you, but you can control how you react to it.” Obviously this is easier said than done, but when I did accept this as Truth (note the capital-T), my recovery was vastly expedited.

Ultimately, recovery comes from within, and if you never initiate change, why should you expect anything to be different?

– Andrew

Andrew`s personal blog, Lunch With The Punks, explores the idea that no emotion is inherently negative or positive; the actions that result are what dictate the emotion`s charge. 

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