@Former-Member Awwwwww your post made me feel all warm and fuzzy. I superly duperly liked it: smileyhappy:

I do fully intend to change the world and I know that in some ways I AM changing the world...I just wish that the whole power differential thing didn't exist between "the professionals" and "the consumers." In terms of cold hard cash, I can survive relatively ok on the DSP. For me it's definitely more about the power differential. I can create a work-like structure to my week via volunteering etc. and these days I am never bored. It's the power thing that I am super struggling with. I hate how "mental health workers" or "mental health professionals" are esteemed as "experts" when from what I can tell, pretty much anyone who has some vague mental-health related qualification can call themselves a "mental health worker." And that's totally ok...so long as there is transparancy about their level of knowledge and skill. I absolutely definitely don't believe that higher qualifications = greater skills. I just believe there needs to be transparancy around this because I get the feeling sometimes that terms like "mental health professional" are regarded by the general public as meaning things such as psychologist, psychiatrist, mental health social worker etc. when in fact the term seems to be very poorly defined and can mean whatever someone wants it to mean.

I'm sorry you are in a similar pickle to me regarding employment @Former-Member. I know you have spent a bazillion years at uni too. It is utterly soul destroying not being able to reap any sort of financial reward from that. And yeah, I know, money isn't everything, but the reality is that we live in a capitalist society and we can't pay the rent/mortgage with altruism can we!