The first and most crucial step is surely Insight.   People have got to recognize they have a mental illness before they can deal with it.

Thanks, that's the idea of what I'm looking for, but I need a research or an article that shows that kind of stages model.

Emilie Bélanger wrote about 5 stages. You can look her up on internet. 

References

Mizock, L., & Russinova, Z. (2016). Acceptance of mental illness: Promoting recovery among culturally diverse groups. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. 

Conference Paper Overcoming stigma and promoting recovery: Photovoice for peo...

Wow, thanks! This book is exactly what I needed. I'll try to find it.

with recent research findings, might be misleading for someone to "accept" mental illness- evidence is

mounting that the many "comorbidities" almost always found with those diagnosed as mentally ill,

are not signs of multiple illnesses - science of neuroplasticity has discovered ways in which mental

activity can benefit or harm our physical body organs and processes; also certain physical organs

and processes can help or hurt our ability to pay attention, to think realistically and rationally and to

take decisions that support our safety, survival and thriving- Scientifically, there are considerable

bases for a concept that a person is either ill or well, and observed symptoms, both physical and

mental, are signs of system disruption- and resources for restoring health can be found in mental

activity as well as in brain biology, and the workings of the gastrointestinal processes- the book by,

Perlmutter , Brain Maker, references the voluminous research on how our choices of food and drink

can not only affect our physical health like cardiovascular function and complaints like constipation

and diarrhea,and brain impairments, but Schwartz work at UCLA demonstrated how mental

activity in psychotherapy corrects specific impairments in brain biology- the UCLA project is

discussed in detail in the book,The Mind and the Brain.