The educational Chair told everyone at the lunch on Friday: “Accept recovery for what it is. If your loved one has a part-time job that’s their recovery. Another person might have a different recovery.”

Our mothers and fathers too are in recovery from the shock of having kids that developed a mental illness.

Whatever we’re in recovery from–everyone has in common that we’re in recovery from something.

The educational Chair picked up on what I’ve long been saying in this blog: all hail the cashiers in Rite Aid.

This is not inconsistent. Setting your sights higher can often be shifting the needle to the left of the dial by getting a job in Rite Aid. So for that person it’s an achievement in recovery to be a cashier. For another person recovery is defined as CEO.

What I find unhelpful is all the judging that goes on in society. I find it unconscionable that the bar hasn’t been set or that it’s set too high for what constitutes “recovery.”

“Experts agree that 15 percent of individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia recover” is not something I’m willing to parrot. I don’t think it’s true. We need more optimists like the educational Chair who speak the truth to the power of the entrenched naysayers.

Telling people they won’t recover is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Acting as if people can recover will encourage them to think they can recover.

I know which side I’m on:

The side of redefining recovery.