ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, January 7, 1997 TAG: 9701070048
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 3 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: Personal health
SOURCE: JANE E. BRODY\The New York Times
Norma Levorson spent a quiet Christmas with her husband, Jerry, at their home in Albert Lea, Minn., and said she enjoyed it thoroughly. A few years ago, the couple spent another ``delightful'' Christmas at a lovely hotel in Chicago, where they attended a neighborhood church and a theatrical opening.
``Delight'' was not always the emotion she associated with Christmas. Years ago, when she was in the throes of a depression, with her parents dead and her children dispersed, Christmas filled Levorson with paralyzing anxiety about not being able to have the big family-centered picture-book holiday so often portrayed on television.
What has made the difference, Levorson says - not just in her enjoyment of whatever the holidays may bring but in her ability to participate in and get pleasure from many ordinary aspects of life - has been a self-help group called Recovery Inc.
Levorson, who after three years as a participant became a group leader in the voluntary organization 14 years ago, said it had given her back her life and had become her second family.
Founded nearly 60 years ago by a Chicago psychiatrist, Dr. Abraham Low, to help chronically nervous people get well and help former mental patients stay well, Recovery Inc. has expanded internationally and, through 700 groups, now serves hundreds of thousands of people who want to improve their emotional well-being.
The organization's president, Rose VanSickle, said Recovery Inc. had completely changed her life and had made the last 10 of her 50 years ``the best years of my life.'' Before taking part in the structured group meetings, she suffered from an abnormal fear of public places, agoraphobia, complicated by depression that compelled her to quit her job and become housebound.
``Now I can do anything I choose to do. I've become a peaceful, functioning member of society,'' she recalled in a telephone interview. ``I can go to the store, mingle with people, go up and down escalators, ride in elevators. I can buy gifts, invite people for holiday meals, attend church services - the ordinary things that people take for granted but that once were impossible for me.''
How Recovery works
The Recovery ``method,'' as Low designed it, helps people identify the thoughts that set off their crippling emotional symptoms. Then it helps them to modify how they think about and react to things they cannot change or control
Participants might learn, for example, ``how not to repeatedly relive upsetting events in our minds, which only causes us to stay upset,'' Levorson explained. The Recovery method relies on taking action to help oneself, she said. ``With the encouragement and help of group members, we do things to get well,'' she said. ``We don't wait to get well to do things.''
For instance, for a woman who panics at the mere thought of having to entertain the family for the holidays, the group helps her divide the demands into small tasks, start well in advance and do one thing at a time: invite people, plan the menu, find the recipes and start the house cleaning, a task that is in turn broken into small units.
``Maybe instead of trying to prepare the whole dinner herself, she can get help - have it catered, buy some of the dinner already prepared or ask each person to bring a dish,'' Levorson suggested. ``It's hard for people to give up their exceptional performances, but at times this is unrealistic. In Recovery, they learn to accept the fact that they can't do it all anymore.''
For a more serious problem like the undiagnosed panic attacks Levorson realized she had been suffering since childhood, participants learn what sets off their panic reactions - pounding heart, cold sweat, chest pains, etc. - and how their emotional response to the symptoms sets up a vicious cycle. As Levorson described it, ``Fear feeds the symptoms and the symptoms feed the fear.''
Learning from others
The two-hour meetings start with a reading from Low's text ``Mental Health Through Will Training,'' published in 1950 by Christopher Publishing Co.
Then, participants, one at a time, tell of a disturbing event in their lives, what symptoms it produced and what they tried to do about it. They may relate how the lessons of Recovery enabled them to cope or they may ask the group for help in dealing with future such events. During the last half-hour of each meeting, participants can talk one on one with others in the group.
But no one is ever pressured to speak up. ``For many people, it takes a lot of courage just to come to the meeting,'' Levorson said.
The give and take of the weekly meetings can be supplemented by five-minute phone calls to other members between meetings for support.
Recovery Inc. mainly relies on word of mouth spread by those who have benefited from its methods. It does not take attendance, keep records or trace the status of former participants, so it cannot make statistical claims about its successes.
But mental health professionals who have studied its methods attest to its effectiveness in keeping former mental patients well and in helping those with less severe problems cope better with life's stresses.
FINDING HELP
To find a Recovery Inc. group near you, you may send a stamped, self-addressed envelope to the organization's headquarters at 802 N. Dearborn St., Chicago, Ill. 60610, or call (312) 337-5661.
Recovery Inc. does not charge fees. It sustains itself through free-will contributions from those who attend meetings and through the sale of its publications. ``My Dear Ones,'' an informative biography of Abraham Low, the founder, that includes a detailed description of the Recovery method, is available from the organization's headquarters for $15.
Rose VanSickle, president of Recovery Inc., has also written a book, ``Peace of Body, Peace of Mind,'' describing how she used the group's techniques. It is available for $17.95 from PLJ Unlimited Inc., P.O. Box 98441, Raleigh, N.C. 27624-8441. Those placing credit-card orders can call (800) 448-6246.
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