Researching available treatment options to discover what option is best for you at this time is your right and duty as a user of medical services.

I famously haven’t recommended a traditional day program where people are housed long-term with no best-practices treatment and no practical career counseling. See my HealthCentral news article on the Triangle of Mental Health, featuring my proactive tactics for recovery.

To quote SYMS clothing store again: “An educated consumer is our best customer.”

Yet sometimes, no choices abound. I seemingly had few choices circa 1987 to 1990. Decades later, I think I succeeded despite my time in a CMHC, not because of it. A caveat though: some treatment centers are good. I can’t say they’re all sub-par.

The keyword in this value is researching your options to choose the best one among alternatives. We should have choices. Our choices should be made as partners in our healthcare, not as passive recipients of services.

We need to carefully examine what’s best at this moment in time. We might need to change what we do down the road.

I recommend setting goals for what you want to do in your life. It’s a mistake to believe any provider who reinforces to you that recovery isn’t possible. Not only is recovery possible, it’s possible to shoot through recovery into a better life beyond simply that.

To flourish instead of flounder is the goal. And a young person with so much potential deserves to flourish.

Everyone, regardless, deserves to flourish.