Table 3. Characteristics of Recovery Narratives typology.

#	Dimension/type	Definition	Description
NARRATIVE FORM (What kind of story is this?)
1	Genre	A literary kind, type or class of story
1.1	Escape	Narratives of escape from and resistance to abuse, threat, stigma and persecution.	Escape from oppressive beliefs, systems, services, treatments or negative identity as a result of maltreatment or stigma. May contain images of entrapment and/or of a fight for survival.
1.2	Endurance	Narratives of loss, trauma, difficult circumstances and/or seemingly insurmountable odds.	Endurance of losses, weathering storms or battening down the hatches. May contain haunting or chaotic elements or be in the midst of traumatic events. Successes may be expressed in terms of having survived, or kept going. Narrator’s priority may be salvaging over restoring or transforming themselves.
1.3	Endeavour	Narratives of coping strategies and plans, with some continued difficulties and positive aspects.	Endeavouring to make changes and incorporate positive aspects, while accepting difficulties as an ongoing factor of recovery. Narrators may feel they are active agents of change, or may focus on doing things or keeping busy. Priority may be managing rather than transforming themselves.
1.4	Enlightenment	Narratives of transformation and inspiration, with experience of illness/trauma viewed as positive, as new perspective has been gained.	A journey of exploration or discovery leading to empowerment. May contain aspects of redemption or having been saved by something greater than themselves, either by spiritual or humanistic means.
2	Positioning	Ways in which narratives are situated in relation to mental health services (defined as the dominant clinical mental health provision of the country involved).
2.1	Recovery within services	Narratives incorporating positive experiences of the mental health system, either through using services or through delivering services (e.g. peer support)	Diagnosis or experience of being a member of staff or volunteer within mental health services may be experienced as empowering; and treatment, services or relationships with practitioners and/or colleagues and service users as enabling, positive or a salvation. ‘Within services’ may include either or both of using and delivering services.
2.2	Recovery despite services	Narratives of protest in opposition to the biomedical model of mental illness or associated myths (e.g. recovery is not possible) and/or in opposition to mental health services and systems.	Experiences of oppression. May include experience of maltreatment by mental health services, resistance to concepts e.g. ‘myth of incurability’, or recovering of voice/ agency.
2.3	Recovery outside of services	Narratives of recovery in which mental health services do not feature, or feature only very minimally (e.g. visits GP). May not engage with psychiatric definitions and psychological concepts of individual personal growth.	Experiences of living a ‘good life’ beyond services. May incorporate social, political, spiritual, and economic elements, often with a focus on specific areas such as activism, adventure, relationships or spirituality. May contain elements of having a greater purpose: ‘helping others in the same boat’, or a changed understanding of what is most important in life.
3	Emotional tone	The overall mood or feeling of the narrative
3.1	Upbeat	Positive tones	E.g. buoyant, content, hopeful, proud, optimistic, reflective
3.2	Downbeat	Negative tones	E.g. agitated, apologetic, frenetic, pessimistic, sad, shaken
3.3	Challenging	Provocative or stimulating tones	E.g. angry, critical, defiant, protesting
3.4	Neutral	Flat tones	E.g. matter of fact, monotone, disenfranchised
4	Relationship with recovery	How the narrator relates to the concept of recovery at the time of narration
4.1	Recovered	Recovery as an outcome which has been achieved	Period of illness or distress seen as being in the past. May be a clear split between past and present selves.
4.2	Living well	Recovery as a process within which narrator is well-established	Narrator is living well in either the presence or absence of mental illness and sees any continuing difficulties as things which they can overcome.
4.3	Making progress	Recovery as an ongoing process within which narrator is beginning to see progress	Narrator is confident in ability to cope, despite feeling relatively close to the disruptions of a mental health crisis.
4.4	Surviving day to day	Recovery as an ongoing process in which the narrator is tentatively engaging	Narrator may be in a new or difficult or ongoing situation where it may be difficult to realise their hopes, but they still express experiences in terms of recovery.
NARRATIVE STRUCTURE (what shape of story is this?)
5	Trajectory	The direction of a narrative towards its destination
5.1	Upward	An overall ascending progression towards recovery	Narratives of revelation or purposeful suffering, or of evolution from darkness to light towards a better future, or of overall improvement.
5.2	Up and down	Continuing upturns towards health/wellbeing and downturns towards illness/struggle	May challenge the progressive trajectory of spiralling upward. May be experienced as dramatic, ‘roller-coaster’ narratives or more drawn-out ‘progressive and regressive’ stories.
5.3	Horizontal	An even narrative without significant upwards or downturns	Narrator may feel that they are currently stagnating, or taking one day at a time.
5.4	Interrupted	A narrative interrupted by an unexpected crisis or difficulty before resuming its former shape and direction	Narrator sees the crisis or difficulty as a blip, after which their life has returned to its prior state
5.5	Cyclical	A narrative cycling through sequences of distress, gradual recovery, a period of wellbeing and then distress again	Narrators describe a process of going back to the beginning, with no benefits from previous periods of recovery/wellbeing being retained during periods of distress. Narrators may describe cycle as frustrating (a continuous battle) and/or a source of strength (pride at ability to move through difficult periods).
6	Use of turning points	Pivotal moment(s) within the narrative which affect its overall shape.
6.1	Restorying	Turning point is the moment in which a narrator gains a new understanding of their experience.	May be the moment a narrator resists being defined by a dominant discourse and takes over the authorship of their own stories.
6.2	Change for the better	Turning points described as moments of transition followed by sequences where things improve.	Positive events in themselves, such as a moment of self-acceptance or intervention from others, or difficult moments which prove to be a catalyst for positive change, such as realising that others couldn’t help them.
6.3	Change for the better or worse	Turning points described as moments of transition followed by sequences where things either improve or get worse.	Narrator identifies both positive events and turns for the worse as turning points in their narrative
7	Narrative sections	The components of a mental health recovery narrative.
7.1	Origins	Possible roots or causes of later mental health distress, or description of life before illness
7.2	Problems begin	Onset of difficulties, or a sense of going downhill
7.3	Problems worsen	The central experience of illness or distress
7.4	Impact of illness	Effect on narrator’s life, relationships etc.
7.5	Glimpses of recovery	Positive changes which may lay the foundation for turning points
7.6	Turning point	Getting involved in an activity, a new relationship, contact with services, a change of perception, hitting rock bottom
7.7	Roads to recovery	A recovering period, or a sequence describing personal benefits, connections made etc.
7.8	Life afterwards	Reflections, hope for a better future, inclusion of hopeful elements/triumphs to inspire others
NARRATIVE CONTENT (what resources have been deployed in the telling of this story?)
8	Protagonists	The major characters and/or forces at work within a narrative.
8.1	Personal factors	The force(s) working at micro or inter/intra-personal level within a recovery narrative	Most commonly the narrator him or herself: the strong conqueror, the scarred survivor, the enlightened explorer. May also be a helping person or factor such as a helpful treatment or medication
8.2	Socio-cultural factors	Meso-level factors within a recovery narrative. Family, friends, groups or local organisations, mental health staff and services	These may be ‘supporters or villains’, exerting positive or negative effects on the narrative.
8.3	Systemic factors	Macro-level factors within a recovery narrative. Wider community or socio-political systems including legal, healthcare, policy, political, religious and international factors	These may affect the narrative either positively or negatively.
9	Use of metaphors	Imagery employed by the narrator to depict states of being, relating to distress and recovery.
9.1	Distress metaphors	Focused on past distress or a future return to the experience of distress	May depict descent, spiralling out of control, disconnection, alienation, chaos
9.2	Recovery metaphors	Focused on past, present or future experience of recovery	May depict connection, bonding and integration: regaining control of life, partnership with others, victory in fight against illness.