Why are you not a better advocate…..?

I got an email tonight from someone who claims to be a long time reader though I have never seen them comment or have gotten an email from them before. Here is a quote from their lengthy email to sum up their concerns. I thought it would be interesting to post my reply publicly. This only took a few, short minutes to write but I found it interesting and will soon head to bed.

“You want to be a social worker then why are you not a more active advocate for homelessness, mental illness, and substance abuse recovery on your blog? Lately, you just write about going to school and eating filet mignons at expensive restaurants.”

This is simple. It’s a personal blog/journal. I get less than one hundred hits a day from an audience that is already well informed about mental illness, homelessness, etc. I would be preaching to the choir. The majority of the people who read my blog have read for a long time and I think they feel a certain vested interest in keeping up with how I am doing. I rarely draw new readership anymore.

Also, I feel that to be an effective advocate I must learn and grow and talk about my own experiences. How can I best help someone to get sober? By getting and staying sober myself. How can best help someone find a home? By gaining and keeping a home myself. How can I best help someone with a mental illness? By exploring and navigating our complicated mental health system and sharing what works for me.

I also find most blogs as ineffective ways to go about changing something. Very few have large readership or an audience in where you could make a difference online. Do you want to change something or make a difference? Get out and volunteer. Go to school and get a degree that will allow you to make a professional difference. Sure, you can write about it on some obscure blog but you gain far more ground making a difference in the real world. This is what going back to college means to me. To have the opportunity to learn from some very accomplished and knowledgeable people who have years of field experience working with mental illnesses, homelessness, and substance abuse. This blog is nothing more than just a place to talk about and express creatively the journey that I am currently on. Nothing more. Nothing less. I do all my advocating in the real world by going to school to learn and working in the mental health field.