peer support

In order to talk about peer support I need to define what a peer is. Plain and simple, a peer is anyone living with a mental health and/or addictive disease challenge. So, in peer support we do just that; we support one another in our recovery. What does support look like. Support is an encouraging word, positive feedback, the sharing of ideas and skills and camaraderie.

Peer support can happen anywhere at any time between two or more people who are active in their recovery. What is recovery? Recovery is moving at one’s own pace towards a life of one’s choosing. Peers don’t have to be at the same level of recovery to support one another or be recovering from the same thing. They just have to be committed to moving forward and be willing to use their lived experience to help someone else.

In peer support we don’t really give each other advice. Rather we speak from our own very personal experiences. This exchange of ideas and experiences differs from a clinician patient relationship in that no one is the expert on anyone else. We are all experts on ourselves. We know better than anyone what works for us and what doesn’t.

The value comes from the discovery of our strengths, skills and talents. Together we figure out what we are good at, find the courage to pursue those talents and find meaning in our trials. Our trials and dark days really do make us stronger and better equip us to manage our lives. We come face to face with the truth of who we are and what we are capable of. We find personal power in the fact that we are more than survivors, we are thrivers.

We do this together in nonjudgmental environments where no one person is the leader; where there are no followers, only participants in the process. Everyone is accepted for where they are in the process and although there is no insistence that a person move quickly through their recovery, there is peer pressure. Pressure to be the best version of one’s self on any given day. This miraculous and life affirming exchange can happen in a fast food restaurant, a community center or in a formal peer program. It can happen at the bus stop or in someone’s living room.

In wellness centers in Georgia peer support happens individually and in groups. Trained and untrained peers can facilitate peer support. In clinical environments trained peer specialists facilitate individual sessions called peer to peer and recovery groups. In all these interactions, lived experience is used to transfer life skills to one another.

We are a tribe of thrivers who experience the world in very different ways. Some of us experience mood swings, some see things that others can’t and some hear things that others can’t. The thing we all have in common is hope. We hope for a better future, a future in which we live the best possible life we can. We hope for a future where we are seen as more than our diagnosis and dark days; a future where we can be fully mother, father, sister, son, CPS, peer, etc. And miraculously, we are all welcome in peer support. No one who hopes for a better tomorrow or is active in their recovery is excluded.