[5] 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.

[6] Abraham Low, a neuropsychiatrist, began the Recovery groups in 1937, when he was on the faculty at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

[8] The original thirty-seven founding members had recovered their mental health after receiving insulin shock treatments at the Institute.

[9] 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 advocate for improvements in social policies regarding state mental health regulations.

Following Low's death in 1954, Recovery transitioned completely from a professionally run treatment adjunct, to a peer-run self-help group.

Recovery members are simply viewed as people who have developed disturbing symptom-reactions leading to ill-controlled behavior.

The fear of permanent handicap insists that there is no cure or relief for one's mental illness and that recovery is impossible.

When discussing symptoms, temperamental lingo includes the use of adjectives such as "intolerable," "uncontrollable," "unbearable," and similar language that places an emphasis on the dangerous and fatalistic implications of feelings, impulses, or thoughts.

Recovery considers adults as capable of behaving based on deliberate plans, settled decisions, reasoned conclusions and firm determinations.

[8] Sociologist Edward Sagarin described this as a compromise between the term neurotic and the more colloquial phrase "nervous breakdown".

Spotting, reframing defeatist language, self-endorsement and creating Examples are the most commonly cited in scholarly reviews of Recovery.

[9] Using the physician's perspective to reframe defeatist thoughts is intended to help members recognize that they have not lost control, and their situation can be coped with.

[8][9] Members practice self-endorsement of every effort made to use a Recovery method, no matter how small and regardless of the outcome.

[13][19] The Example format was created by Low as a means to allow Recovery to function as a stand-alone lay self-help group that would not require professional supervision.

A successful outcome is not required to create an Example, as all attempts at practicing Recovery methods are endorsed.

[9] At the meetings, members share examples from their lives that caused nervous symptoms, the thoughts that occurred just beforehand, how they spotted them and reacted to them.

Meetings range in size from 6 to 30 members and follow a rigid schedule to ensure adherence to Recovery methods.

The group leader reminds the members that examples should be constructed around day-to-day events as Recovery is a non-professional organization and cannot help people with major problems.

This statement is qualified, however, with Low's opinion that the majority of a nervous patient's problems are related to "trivial" incidents.

This group leader usually makes the first comments, and if there are no volunteers to continue, he or she may call on panel members to provide commentary.

[5][18] Low saw the sharing of successes by veteran members as an essential component of meetings, as it demonstrates that distressing sensations can be endured, impulses can be controlled, and obsessions can be checked.

In a case where a member brings up a disagreement between his physician and a Recovery concept, he or she is told that the panel is not qualified to provide an answer not related to the Examples presented.

[22] The 1960 survey found few members with extensive histories of treatment for mental illness prior to joining Recovery.

[8] More recent studies have shown that in self-help groups for serious mental illness, approximately 60% (55–75%) of members had been hospitalized for psychiatric reasons.

[22] Most respondents to the 1960 survey reported having heard of Recovery in the lay press, and joined at the suggestion of a friend or relative.

[24] In 1943 Low published a book, Lectures to Relatives of Former Patients[25] to help assist them with the recovery effort; this information was later reprinted in Peace Versus Power in the Family: Domestic Discord and Emotional Distress in 1967.

[26] In 1945, Abraham Low found the average member improved considerably after the first or second week in the program as it existed at that time.

Members who participated for less than two years tended to still be taking medication and living below the poverty level with smaller social networks.

[27] A 1988 study found that participation in Recovery decreased members' symptoms of mental illness and the amount of psychiatric treatment needed.