Week 12

Due to circumstances unmatched with my current honours project, I seen myself living with my cousin as a person offering support. During my stay we conversed about his feelings, I began to understand what living with a mental illness contained. A key factor that I obtained was the lack of purpose and ambition that he projected. Due to not having work commitments because of the current coronavirus pandemic, he never knew what to fill his day with. This led to a bad attitude on life. Witnessing the daily struggles of mental illness gave me a strong insight on how important this project is.

I have also realised how important CBT is on the recovery process. My cousin has used CBT as his main source of recovery over the past year, he participated in this form of recovery with the support of a therapist over video communication. As he felt better, he felt as though he never required as much support from both the therapist and CBT practises – resulting in not utilising either at all. This proved wrong as he soon experienced a relapse. I think that having boosters of CBT as a weekly or monthly habit would be beneficial. It could be so little that a person would not depend on it but be often enough that it is there to act a safety net.

As my dissertation is due next week, I will have to dedicate a lot of my time towards it, unfortunately leaving this project on the back burner. My honours project still consumes my thoughts and living with my cousin will provide me with knowledge and perspective that will benefit my project.