There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so. (Shakespeare in Hamlet)

A few days ago, I was struck by a paragraph in a blog post by Liz Spikol. It was  written by Jim Gutstein.

"You’ve lived through several successive Eras: Psychosocial Rehabilitation, Evidence Based Practices, Transformation, Recovery and now Recovery and Wellness but the only thing that actually changed was your medication. You’ve been referred to as a patient, a recipient, a client, a consumer, a prosumer, a self advocate and now a person with but everything is the same at the hospitals, the sheltered workshops, the partial hospitalization programs and the very day program you now attend. You are now told pursuant to the Recovery model that you are suddenly empowered but what evidences your empowerment? What is it in your life that is now different? When did you last hold a meaningful job, live in decent housing, go on a date, attend to a party which wasn’t held at 3 pm or have friends over to your place? Has your health improved? Has your circle of friends and acquaintances changed? Has your income increased to provide for more options? What activities do you now engage in which you wouldn’t have before you were empowered?"

Then, this morning, I watched a TED video on You Tube by Dan Gilbert: "Why are we happy? Why aren't we happy?" While watching it, I had one of those odd ah ha moments: odd in the sense that I wasn't really learning anything entirely new, but I was putting it together in a way that was new to me.

From my perspective, Gutstein was challenging us to demand more for ourselves and from the mental health system because he does not believe that what so many of us settle for is nearly enough.  And for those of us who (also) work in mental health, the challenge is to double down to create a system where this simply doesn't happen anymore.

Gilbert seems to give us one possible reason why we do this. Look at the video and see what you think.