It is a mistake to think mental illness will heal the same way a cut on your finger heals. That you can just put a bandage over it and give it time and it will heal. It is also a mistake to think that once you are healed of your illness it will be easy to go back to work.
It is actually quite difficult to heal from mental illness. It requires doing the difficult work of developing new thought processes. Going back to work after many years on SSI, and not working while on SSI, can be a very difficult and uncomfortable process. The mind in some ways atrophies through many years of being on SSI. The mind needs to be strengthened after years of illness.
Reading is the best way to strengthen a mind and learn new ways of thinking. Listening to things that help you build your mind and its new thought processes help too. New thought processes applied to some form of work allow you to learn new mental discipline, which is important to help your mind grow sound.
What drives these new processes is a strong desire for a new life and the willingness to pursue it with the belief that you will heal. Nothing will stop the healing of your mind except the very way you think coupled with what you believe, backed by your willingness to work to create the life you want. Once you accept that the healing process is difficult, in many ways it stops being difficult. It becomes something that simply requires real effort.
Any mind can heal. Even the most severely ill mind can be changed and made new.