Client Spot­light: Cel­e­brat­ing Recov­ery through Cynthia

April 16, 2019

Meet Cyn­thia

Cyn­thia is a pub­lished writer, a val­ued vol­un­teer with Ken­neth Young Center’s Old­er Adult Ser­vices, and a friend to many at KYC. She has also faced seri­ous men­tal health chal­lenges through­out her life. We’re proud to share her sto­ry with you in hon­or of her accom­plish­ments and her con­tin­ued jour­ney through recovery.

When Cyn­thia thinks of her child­hood, she vivid­ly remem­bers being a lit­tle girl who heard voic­es that no one else could hear. Through­out her life, her men­tal ill­ness man­i­fest­ed in a vari­ety of ways, each cre­at­ing a sense of iso­la­tion and some­times fear. She strug­gled to find help in school and as an adult, try­ing dif­fer­ent treat­ments and cop­ing mech­a­nisms for her dai­ly life. Cyn­thia began writ­ing in high school, and has enjoyed shar­ing her work with oth­ers ever since. Click here to read about Cyn­thi­a’s back­ground and her expe­ri­ences in her own words.

Find­ing the Right Support

Hap­pi­ly, Cyn­thia reflects that she has come a long way in her recov­ery and cred­its KYC for help­ing her in her jour­ney. She now has a steady psy­chi­a­trist who helped her find med­ica­tions that are the right fit for her symp­toms, pref­er­ences, and lifestyle. She has grown social­ly, and is thank­ful for the oppor­tu­ni­ty to con­nect with oth­er peo­ple who also live with and under­stand men­tal health con­cerns. Pri­or to com­ing to KYC, she notes that she felt alone in deal­ing with her symp­toms. Through KYC’s Psy­choso­cial Reha­bil­i­ta­tion (PSR) pro­gram, she has been able to grow and learn along­side oth­ers who can relate to her expe­ri­ences and sup­port her.

Cyn­thia has been par­tic­i­pat­ing in KYC’s PSR pro­gram for ten years. PSR sup­ports peo­ple with men­tal ill­ness by help­ing them build the skills need­ed to live, work, learn, and par­tic­i­pate ful­ly in the com­mu­ni­ty. This pro­gram also pro­vides a social set­ting that encour­ages com­mu­ni­ty among par­tic­i­pants as they learn and grow togeth­er. Cyn­thia looks for­ward to attend­ing PSR four days a week and appre­ci­ates the struc­ture that it pro­vides to her sched­ule. Tica, a Recov­ery Coun­selor who works with the PSR pro­gram, notes that Cyn­thia has not only adopt­ed excel­lent health prac­tices using skills that she learned at KYC, but she also mod­els this behav­ior to encour­age oth­er PSR par­tic­i­pants to do the same. Cyn­thia has adopt­ed healthy eat­ing prac­tices and new skills to cope with her symp­toms that she suc­cess­ful­ly and reg­u­lar­ly prac­tices on her own.

Thriv­ing in Recovery

Recov­ery in men­tal health is not a final state — it is the con­tin­u­al process of work­ing towards well­ness. When asked about Cyn­thi­a’s progress, Tica thought­ful­ly com­ment­ed that Cyn­thia has ​“coura­geous­ly lived her life in a very hero­ic way.” Even as Cyn­thia dealt with her own chal­lenges with her men­tal health, she was still able to become a care­tak­er for her broth­er as he faced his own health issues. Tica notes that Cyn­thi­a’s abil­i­ty to care for not only her­self, but for some­one else, is a com­pelling sign of her suc­cess in recovery.

Through­out her life, Cyn­thia has enjoyed writ­ing and has had some of her pieces pub­lished in anthol­o­gy books and poet­ry col­lec­tions. We’re grate­ful that she open­ly shares her sto­ry with peo­ple who may either relate to or learn from her life expe­ri­ences. She recent­ly read one of her poems aloud at the win­ter PSR Tal­ent Show, and even includ­ed her work in the PSR Gazette, a pub­li­ca­tion pro­duced by and for the PSR group. She has also shared anoth­er of her poems about her jour­ney in recov­ery that you can check out here.

KYC is extreme­ly proud of our clients for the ded­i­ca­tion they have to improve their men­tal well­ness each day, and we are grate­ful to be a part of their recov­ery. Thank you, Cyn­thia, for shar­ing your jour­ney with us, and for con­tin­u­ing to grow while inspir­ing oth­ers to do the same.

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