Partial vs Full Recovery
Recovery exists on a continuum of improved health and functioning. The mental health field has long affirmed the concept of partial recovery (some residual disability with reduced social costs and improved health and functioning) but, until recently, has lacked a vision of full recovery from serious mental illness (minimal residual disability and resumption of pre-illness levels of health and functioning). In contrast, the addiction treatment field has had an unequivocal goal of full recovery (sustained abstinence and increased health) but has lacked an operational concept of partial recovery (reduced frequency and intensity of alcohol and other drug use and related problems and increased quality of life). The complementarity between these two forms of recovery may benefit both fields.In addition, it may be time for both fields to recognize within the growing body of recovery narratives the existence of what might be called transcendent recovery (minimal residual disability and the achievement of health, functioning and quality of life superior to that which existed before the onset of illness). Transcendent recovery acknowledges the existence of people who, following the experience of addiction and/or mental illness, get "better than well," not despite the illness but because of the insights, experiences, and often untapped strengths that emerged within the recovery process. It is within this experience of transcendent recovery that some people reframe their illness from a curse to a condition that has brought them unexpected gifts.
