Could you tell me more about how you see it in your industry?
I mainly see it at work and in my field. I work at a mental health web magazine and do research in the field of mental health law and policy, and it seems like everyone has their own version of, “If you just do X then all your suffering would go away, but you’re not doing X well enough so you’re still suffering.” X could be meditation, mindfulness, yoga, exercise, medication, therapy, “seeking help,” “taking care of your body,” “thinking positive,” “practicing gratitude,” etc. The idea is that a person can just choose to end their suffering and that if they’re still suffering then they’re not making that choice or they’re not working hard enough.
I feel like every other day I run into a colleague that shares some amount of this viewpoint. Just yesterday my colleague was talking about how she has a client who takes lithium for bipolar disorder, but if he just “took better care of himself” by not drinking so much and exercising more then he wouldn’t need to be on medication. Another one of my colleagues said that people who take psychiatric medication aren’t living up to their full human potential. I’ve also heard colleagues say that they feel burdened by their clients and if their clients just took medication then they wouldn’t be suffering so much.
I just feel like almost everyone espouses this belief in some kind of way and I just want to escape from it so badly.
I mainly see it at work and in my field. I work at a mental health web magazine and do research in the field of mental health law and policy, and it seems like everyone has their own version of, “If you just do X then all your suffering would go away, but you’re not doing X well enough so you’re still suffering.” X could be meditation, mindfulness, yoga, exercise, medication, therapy, “seeking help,” “taking care of your body,” “thinking positive,” “practicing gratitude,” etc. The idea is that a person can just choose to end their suffering and that if they’re still suffering then they’re not making that choice or they’re not working hard enough.
I feel like every other day I run into a colleague that shares some amount of this viewpoint. Just yesterday my colleague was talking about how she has a client who takes lithium for bipolar disorder, but if he just “took better care of himself” by not drinking so much and exercising more then he wouldn’t need to be on medication. Another one of my colleagues said that people who take psychiatric medication aren’t living up to their full human potential. I’ve also heard colleagues say that they feel burdened by their clients and if their clients just took medication then they wouldn’t be suffering so much.
I just feel like almost everyone espouses this belief in some kind of way and I just want to escape from it so badly.
