About this argument that you, gucci, normie, I, and others keep having....
I know you are a very smart person, as well as very successful, therefore I am pretty certain that you are capable of handling the concept that the people, like me (who get really pissed off by this "You just need to think positively!" crap people like you who perhaps have milder symptoms and who respond incredibly well to meds keep selling), are using positive thinking just to survive and take care of ourselves more and more and not commit suicide. And I am nearly certain that you can understand another concept, that is, the logical consequence of positive thinking in most cases is not full time employment and leaving the paltry benefits many of us are afforded by the USA’s welfare state/safety net. And, conversely, the lack of full time employment is not the sign of a lack of positive thinking.
Maybe we have the common sense to realize that working and supporting ourselves is not the most pertinent goal for the vast majority of people with schizophrenia. By realizing this, we can find more functional and rewarding ways to employ our efforts (in most cases), and feel better about ourselves, not worse as some would have us feel.
Maybe we also have the common sense to realize that there are more practical activities that people like you and gucci could be doing to improve the quality of the lives of the ordinary people with schizophrenia than lording your rare successes over people, who face challenges you may not be able to understand and therefore be more sensitive to, and exhorting them to think more positively and, for gawd’s sake, get a fucking job.
Don’t you have anything else to offer us than salt thrown in our psychic wounds? Get the SGA raised considerably for gawd’s sake. Or create sheltered jobs that pay a living wage and medical benefits. Or go back to college and study medicine or biology or chemistry, and help find better treatments. Mentor truly sick people with schizophrenia in your community. Be a friend to them. Help them experience more pleasures in life and simpler accomplishments--if you can learn to appreciate these. It is a great thing when many people with schizophrenia manage to live independently. Don’t you know that? Do you think that doesn’t take positive thinking?
Another thing: just because we don’t work and support ourselves, don’t assume we don’t have hope and drive anymore. We don’t just sit on our asses and watch Jerry Springer. Some of us are taking care of our children. Some of us are educating ourselves. Some of us just manage to get out our homes and go to educational groups at clinics and mental health centers. Some of us struggle to triumph just by taking our meds on schedule and not having to be hospitalized too often. You imply that because we don’t meet the one goal you set for us, the one goal you think is worthwhile and deserving of praise, that we are failures. That is truly cruel, and, no, we are not failures. Why can’t you take joy in what we accomplish in our lives despite the considerable challenges we face? Why do you mock and insult us? Why do you belittle our efforts?
I know I am one of the lucky ones, even though I don’t have a profitable career like yours. I can live independently. Do you realize that COMPLETELY about yourself? I met a wonderful man at a schizophrenia support group who lives in a group home. He is incredibly intelligent and articulate, and his greatest hope right now is that he will be able to handle moving to his own apartment and living independently again. Do you understand the positive thinking he uses everyday? Or is he a worthless piece of manure because he isn&’t polishing his resume, like your expressed attitude would make him feel?
The individual accomplishments many of us achieve in the face of the individual challenges each of us face from this illness with its manifold cruel and puzzling faces are worth great celebration, even when they don’t earn us a paycheck. I know you would feel ashamed, if you could not work. Sometimes we start to feel that way, too--sometimes with your kindly help. You should know that you can be a great example, even one of triumph over this illness we all share, without being such a hard ass and sticking your thumbs in others’ eyes every time you come around schizophrenia.com.
Stop behaving like a job coach, help improve the lives of schizophrenia people in meaningful ways, and stop putting the ordinary schizophrenia folks down.
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