Exploring how individuals who have experienced an episode of psychosis understand the factors that helped or impeded their recovery.

This qualitative study explored seven adults’ experiences of recovery from an episode of psychosis, with a particular focus on the self-identified factors they believed had supported, and impeded, their recovery. Thematic Analysis was used to analyse the data. This resulted in a thematic map consisting of three superordinate themes: ‘Getting through psychosis’, ‘Barriers that got in the way’ and ‘Life after psychosis’; each with a cluster of subordinate themes. The narratives of the participants demonstrated a complex relationship between subordinate themes such as perseverance and self-belief, positive experiences of being helped, the timing of recovery, support from others, and stigma. Analysis also highlighted the strength of character and courage of individuals who experience psychosis, and reinforced the need to foster personal resources, and service users’ awareness of these resources. The results showed the need for clinical policy and interventions to continue to be informed by service user perspectives, because analysis highlighted some valuable insights into how services are experienced. Of note was the impact of the communication style, personal qualities and timing of clinical interventions upon positive or negative experiences of recovery