Alex Cooper

About

A small moment I watch for: someone mentions, without any particular emphasis, that they did something last week they had been avoiding for years. They usually move straight on to the next topic. I usually stop them. That is what recovery looks like in practice. Post-traumatic improvement is undramatic and easy to miss, arriving as a series of small reclaimed activities rather than as any identifiable moment of resolution. We keep a record exactly because the person living it will not notice. Being shown the list at month six is often the most encouraging thing that happens. I left research for the room some time ago and brought a fondness for records with me. Records are not bureaucracy here; they are evidence. If you cannot tell whether anything has changed, get in touch. That is exactly the kind of thing the record is there to show you.