Work can be Therapeutic

So, someone I know well has a mental problem, and has been taken care of by a family member, and not had to work.

Receiving disability? He would qualify. Yesterday, I told others I didn't like the notion of him getting government assistance. Tonight, I think back to those thoughts, trying to recall just why I thought government welfare was not the best option. I wonder but what he was not done a disservice by not being required to work. If he were to have been told to work, and had to do so, it would have been more difficult for him to live in his delusions, or at least to rest on them. As it was, though, with someone supporting him, it allowed him to justify his delusions as reason for not working. It was just and right that he not work, in his mind. Had he had to work, to make his own way, it would not have been so easy for him to live in his delusions.
No, I don't think I am capturing my thoughts as clearly as they came to me yesterday. Wish I were recalling them better. Will go to bed a thinking about this, probably.
 I just think when a person has to work -- no choice -- then they sometimes do. And, it can be therapeutic, if only to a degree. I have a roommate sleeping well on the couch tonight, who fights alcohol. He often gets up and marches down to Labor Ready, though, partly because he knows it is the right thing and wants to do the right thing and partly because, so far, I have not been much for saying, Hey, I'll buy your food if you can't make it. He has to work to eat.
Giving a person help is good, whether it is government doing it or a person. It can be wonderful. But, it can be better, sometimes, when we don't, and the person lifts him or herself, having no choice. That is not a bad thing.