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Recovery is slow. It’s ugly. Painful. Full of unpleasant surprises. Full of disappointments and downfalls. It seems unattainable at times. Next to impossible. Challenging in ways you’d never expect. Trying. Demanding. Exhausting. Overwhelming. Frustrating. Nerve straining. Gut wrenching. Sometimes it feels like the decease is bigger than life itself. And yet, at the same time, it bears its rewards- both small and immediate and those that are more permanent. It’s full of promises and discoveries. Educating and enlightening. But perhaps, the most rewarding aspect of recovery is how truly liberating it is and what tremendous sense of freedom you obtain in the process. You become stronger. You mature. You learn things about yourself you never thought existed. You slowly gain confidence in yourself that you’ve always lacked. Learn to appreciate yourself better. Learn to appreciate everything around you. And you learn to trust yourself-and once you do, you become open both to yourself and everything else that’s around you. Suddenly your visions are not skewed and distorted anymore. Suddenly you see things as they are. Suddenly you start noticing things around you always missed, because you were too trapped in your own illness and inside your own mind to notice anything. You learn to listen, both to yourself and others. You learn patience, both with yourself and others. You learn about compassion- both towards yourself and others- you let go of your fears- and once that happens, you know you’re free in the truest sense of the word, and that is truly amazing.