I think this is great advice, but. . . My comment won’t be popular.

If this was coming from a random person, I would probably ignore it. But this is a mental health professional giving his advice from listening to people for decades. This is what he chooses to share.

It is not about people how people can find decent affordable treatment. It is not about how to survive the onslaught of attacks on our spirits living in a world where we put children in cages and don’t let them bathe. It isn’t even how we can solve the ethical questions of treating the homeless mentally ill population.

Those are real problems.

Advice like this is meant well, but it ignores that people can’t always slap a smiley face on their demons and expect it to get better. You know, like the mentally ill. You can’t take a pill and magically make society not kick you in the teeth. For many, many people, problems way beyond their control are making their lives shit. They don’t care about anything other than survival.

This is rather self congratulatory. Like, “Look at my great life. I have a medical degree, a relationship, and my needs are so well met in life, I can really focus on how to be more content.”

This really doesn’t help anyone but those who have First World problems and the trappings that all that implies.

This is solid advice for those who already have the ingredients for great lives -- the people who aren’t exactly white-knuckling it through the ride of life. They have achieved everything on the bottom portion of the pyramid and have the luxury of being self-indulgent in order to “find meaning and happiness” in the part of the equation.

I am currently corresponding with a man who is suicidal because he cannot find work despite applying to over 3,000 jobs. He is late end of middle age and pushed out of the job market. Suicide isn’t from depression, it looks a choice between that and homelessness.

Many people who commit suicide do so because of financial pressure. How about we address a five-minute read to that?

For those with real struggles, advice like this is not only hollow, but pretty insulting.

This is who we should be helping. There is a real lack of qualified psychiatrists to treat those in need -- and not just the homeless but the general public. Many psych docs don’t even accept insurance and most medical doctors are prohibited from writing prescriptions for psych medication. Access to these doctors is a significant barrier to treatment.

Where I live, they charge $250 to $300 an hour. None are taking new patients and it is cash up front. Can we get a thought piece on that?

These are the real problems I would hope they would write about. Not how someone with a house, a romantic relationship, a functional family, and only one job serving their financial needs can find happiness in their very fortunate circumstances.