“I Don’t Want to Make Candles!” Supporting the Career Development Needs of Those Recovering from Mental Illnesses

Abstract

The following is an excerpt from an interaction with a 28-year-old young man who was pursuing a bachelor's degree in engineering when he was first affected by schizophrenia. His active symptoms had subsided and, as was the norm, he had been sent for "occupational rehabilitation." But within a week he refused to go to the rehabilitation center. Initially, this refusal was attributed to his illness, a relapse was feared, and the psychiatrists began to consider increasing his medication. Closer engagement with him led him to say, "Look, I had dreamed all my life of becoming an engineer. I was enrolled in a great college and then I fell ill. Okay, maybe that is fate. But this rehabilitation is worse! I am expected to go every day to the occupation center and make candles! Or if not that, paper envelopes! Look, I don't need rehabilitation. Everyone thinks I'm mad. I'm not mad. I don't want to make candles. I just want to complete my course and become an engineer." While at one level this statement may be touching and poignant, at another level, it is a vivid and stark representation of the disempowerment suffered by a person recovering from mental illness. Such disempowerment can incapacitate the individual personally, socially, and professionally. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)