Recovery International
Recovery International (formerly Recovery, Inc., often referred to simply as Recovery or RI) is a mental health self-help organization founded in 1937 by neuropsychiatrist Abraham Low in Chicago, Illinois. Recovery's program is based on self-control, self-confidence, and increasing one's determination to act. Recovery deals with a range of people, all of whom have difficulty coping with everyday problems, whether or not they have a history of psychiatric hospitalization. It is non-profit, secular, and although it uses methods devised by Low, most groups are currently led by experienced non-professionals. History Abraham Low, a neuropsychiatrist, began the Recovery groups in 1937, when he was on the faculty at the University of Illinois at Chicago. At that time, Recovery Inc. was an entity of the Neuropsychiatric Institute at the University of Illinois Research and Education Hospital, and participants in Recovery were limited to those who had been hospitalized in the Psychiatric Institute at the University. The original thirty-seven founding members had recovered their mental health after receiving insulin shock treatments at the Institute. Low began the groups as part of an attempt to improve the patient's care following discharge from his hospital. In the early years of the organization he encouraged members to