It’s a mental health awareness term for
people who encourage others to recover while also giving them space to choose not to — and offering support through it instead of eradicating their human rights. The focus shifts from isolating, stigmatizing and shaming individuals for their self-destructive behavior to harm reduction through acceptance.
Someone who uses that label instead of the old “pro-recovery”
one recognizes all
people deserve to recover, while also admitting that forcing them into it could have massive repercussions on their psyche (specially given the state of the current mental healthcare system, as it doesn’t have that many resources and forced recovery on its own is not only traumatic but also moralizes
poor mental health as immoral and reinforces systemic ableism).
It’s about allowing
people to feel their own feelings without immediately
pushing them to do better — because a lot of the times, that’s the best they can do.
Getting better is a choice. Not a requirement.
TL;DR Movement that defends the idea that
people deserve human rights despite wanting to recover or not as well as the autonomy to choose between the two.
Marco: Hi Denise! I heard you relapsed…
Don’t worry, I don’t blame you for it and i’ll support you through everything.
Denise: Now THAT is a
hot pro-autonomy
babe!
