Once I read from my memoir Left of the Dial at an event for peers and family members.
The host was raffling off 10 copies of my book for audience members to win.
To my delight one peer who won a free copy of the memoir had told me they liked reading inspirational stories. They had told me this at the start of the event even though they didn’t have a job.
At the end the peer won a copy of Left of the Dial.
I talk about this because the idea of what constitutes a “career” is open for interpretation.
Decades ago in the now-defunct SZ magazine that I wrote a column for there was an article on what you could do when you have negative symptoms of schizophrenia and couldn’t hold a job.
To wit:
You could bake cakes. You could play guitar in a band. You could go to a coffee shop for breakfast and have a latte and read the newspaper.
Having worked with a person who didn’t have a mental illness [and who was rude and hostile] I can tell you that it’s possible for anyone with a pulse to get a job.
Having a job or not having a job is NO indicator of a person’s worth.
It’s why in my original Flourish blog I sang the praises of Rite Aid cashiers.
Those cashiers bust themselves standing up every day for hours ringing up orders.
I refuse to use the automatic payment machine to check out items on my own at Rite Aid.
I don’t want the cashiers to lose their jobs to a machine.
Every day for years and years Rite Aid cashiers have been ringing people up with a smile. For years and years it’s the same cashiers.
For some of us our recovery is a full-time job. Managing our mental health should be the prime focus.
My contention has always been from the very start of my advocacy efforts that I recovered because I had first found the job I love.
I didn’t find this job after I had recovered. It was the other way around–I make this distinction–finding the job I love enabled me to recover.
This is why we need to expand the definition of a “career” for the purposes of recovery.
A multitude of career options exist in the world for everyone living here.
Should my rude and hostile coworker have been exalted because he has a job? While a mental health peer who is compassionate is looked down on because they don’t have a job?
Exactly.
In coming blog entries I”m going to talk more about goal-setting.
About how engaging in goal-seeking behavior–regardless of whether your goal is to get a job publish a book or go on vacation–can make all the difference in how good you feel.
WorkingAssets 