Arenas of Recovery for Persons with Severe Mental Illness

We analyzed informant narratives in terms of the benefits of spending time within various community arenas, including service user organizations, advocacy agencies, the bowling alley, and universities. Themes contributing to recovery from severe mental illness included the understanding and acceptance infromants both gave and received from others, spiritual fulfillment, and even experiences of anger as mechanisms of empowerment to counter social discrimination and neglect. Involvement across various community arenas and the themes it elicited relative to recovery were understood in terms of developing more durable and advantageous understandings of the self.