Mental Health and Recovery: An Interview with Cara Lisette I MFON

25th March 2024 • My Family Our Needs

In our fourth and final interview for Women’s History Month 2024, we heard from Cara Lisette about her mental health and recovery journey, experience as a campaigner and her Creative Journal Series.

Driven by a vision of self-acceptance, she powerfully shows us the importance of shifting your perceptions and believing you are worthy and capable, wrapping up our series in the most poignant way.

I started it when I qualified as a nurse because I wanted to share what it’s like living with mental health difficulties. Initially, it started as a general mental health and wellness blog where I spoke about past difficulties, but when my mental health deteriorated dramatically in 2018 and 2019, I started using it to document my own recovery. Now, I use it to share all the lessons I’ve learnt since that time and how I currently manage my mental health.

‘Learning that I don’t need to be the best at everything and do everything perfectly really helped me shift my perception of myself.’

2. Many women struggle with self-acceptance and self-care. How do you navigate these challenges in your own life and what advice would you offer to others facing similar struggles?

It’s a really difficult thing to do! It’s taken me my whole life to learn to accept myself, especially as I don’t like being somebody others perceive to be not capable, which I sometimes feel like I’m not when my mental health is bad. I did a lot of work in therapy about accepting myself and learning that things don’t have to be perfect to be meaningful.

Self-care to me can look like gentle activities like using a face mask or doing my nails but equally can include very basic day-to-day tasks like getting dressed in the morning or washing my hair, all the way to bigger things like saying no to things that feel like too much and saying yes to things that scare me but may enrich my life. Learning that I don’t need to be the best at everything and do everything perfectly really helped me shift my perception of myself.

3. How do you maintain balance and prioritise your own wellbeing while also being an advocate and supporting others in their mental health journeys?

Nowadays, I make sure I don’t stretch myself too thin. I used to say yes to everything and take on way too much in an attempt to prove myself and I don’t need to do that to be worthy or valuable. I have very regular contact with my friends, spend a lot of time with my boyfriend, try to do at least one nice thing for myself a day and try to notice when I am taking on too much.

4. What role do you think community and support networks play in mental health recovery, particularly for women?

I am very much a girl’s girl. I love women and my best friends are a wonderful and strong group of women. For me, something that has been really important is that we raise each other up and celebrate each other’s successes. Other women don’t need to be your competition – they can be your cheerleaders. Rooting for each other to do well and being there for each other when things are tough is so vital to maintaining positive mental health for me.

‘You are deserving of a life bigger than the one mental illness allows you to live, and taking steps towards wellness and recovery can make that come true’.

5. You’ve shared openly about your experiences with recovery and mental health challenges. What advice would you give to someone who may be hesitant to seek help or start their own recovery journey?

The main thing for me was having the belief that my life could be different. I didn’t always believe that for myself, but other people did and when I was ready to take that on myself, I made even bigger steps forward. You are deserving of a life bigger than the one mental illness allows you to live, and taking steps towards wellness and recovery can make that come true.

6. How do you cultivate resilience and find moments of hope and positivity amidst the complexities of your mental health journey?

I journaled a lot through my recovery from my eating disorder which was such a vital part of my journey. It helped me to notice my wins and my strengths and to extend gratitude to myself, others and the world. Through doing this, I am much better now at recognising where I can draw hope from and what moment of positivity can keep me going.

The first book, which is for people with eating disorders, was born from my own experience of journaling my way through treatment and recovery. I found the process so therapeutic and it had a secondary effect of providing me with a resource I can use for life, as I can look back on tangible learning and resources I took from therapy and recovery. Following the success of that book, the series was developed which targets other mental health difficulties including bipolar disorder and anxiety. I hope the people who use them will find both the content and the creative process as valuable as I did.

The personal narrative in each book is restricted just to the introduction, the rest of the book is for the reader. I wanted my experience to provide hope, but for those using the book to have a resource that is entirely their own. I have a new book for people with eating disorders coming out next year which will be much more around my personal learning and experiences rather than a creative resource.

‘I find expressing myself through being creative helps me to get thoughts out of my mind and onto paper which allows me to then take ownership of them and begin to challenge them’.

9. Your books combine journaling prompts and creative activities. Could you discuss the importance of incorporating creativity and self-expression into the recovery process, particularly for individuals dealing with mental health challenges?

For me, creativity has always been a big part of my life and my wellbeing in various different formats. Using this in my recovery was not only a good distraction, but it also allowed me to carve out time that was just for me to put all my focus on my recovery. I find expressing myself through being creative helps me to get thoughts out of my mind and onto paper which allows me to then take ownership of them and begin to challenge them.

10. Your journals emphasise the importance of building a toolkit of recovery resources. Could you elaborate on what this toolkit entails and how individuals can personalise it to suit their unique needs and preferences?

I think everyone’s recovery toolkit will look different to them, but I hope that the prompts will allow people to think creatively about what elements that might include and how they could use it. The books cover many aspects including personal internal skills the reader already has, to thinking about developing and practicing new skills and drawing on the people around them when they need to. The journals aren’t designed to be prescriptive but to give the reader inspiration to explore their own strengths, areas to keep developing and their support network.

Cara is a registered mental health nurse and fully accredited psychological therapist, in addition to being an avid writer. She has had lifelong struggles with mental illness, including a lengthy battle with an eating disorder and a diagnosis of bipolar disorder at 25.

She runs a successful blog about her experiences and her recovery, and her bestselling book, a self help journal for people with eating disorders, has been turned into a series supporting people with various mental health difficulties, including bipolar disorder and anxiety. Her love of journaling through her own treatment and recovery was the inspiration behind these books, and she hopes others will see the same benefits through their use of the books.

Next year, Cara is releasing a recovery guidebook for people with all eating disorders, which she hopes will be a resource that can support people through all stages of their recovery. In her spare time, she loves spending time with her cat and boyfriend, watching sitcoms and seeing friends at the weekends.