Alcohol and Drug Abuse and Homelessness
Alcohol and Drug Abuse and Homelessness
Take a look around you each and every day, you have seen the person on the street that obviously does not fit into the picture. This person will most likely be male, further will be disheveled, and will most likely carry some baggage. You have seen this person most likely today.
Did you ever think that this may happen to you? Today the economy in the United States is adding to the homeless population at an alarming rate. Situational homelessness from the economy is the same as the person who is homeless stemming from an addiction from any substance that impairs.
Homelessness is homelessness! The person that works with you that is dressed well, smells good, may have just lost his or her home due to a bad variable mortgage that exceeds what his or her income could sustain. They may have spent every last dollar from savings, pensions, and investments to try and make it work, but simply could not. The end result…Homelessness. These folks may have some family, friends etc that will take them in for their current situation merits it, however…just as it is with the people on the streets that are disheveled, dirty and foul of mood, how long will it take for the person that lost his or her home to wear out the welcome with the myriad of friends that he or she may have?
It has long been said, that guests that are staying for the holidays usually start getting moody after three days. Fish is the same way, if its not taken care of it will start to smell, and to get that smell away is a chore of the ultimate challenge.
Your best friend of 15 years, lost everything, and is staying with you, but after day three, he or she you find out is not a clean freak as perhaps you are, you find out that he or she, loves to watch cartoons, and you are the news channel junkie, and guess what…there is only one TV. Eventually there will be a significant problem, and your guest will be either asked to leave or volunteer to, but none the less both parties will have a permanent mark on that friendship.
Here is where it gets interesting. In this authors opinion, every single homeless person has a story, in most of the individuals I have spoken to, they started their homeless career after a death of loved one, loss of job, or medical issue, and only as of recently, a very bad variable rate adjusted mortgage.
Friends play a large part of the homeless cause and effects. Eventually each and every one of us will know someone, perhaps immediate family, co-worker, friend of friend, it does not matter, you will know of at least one person that went homeless. What you do as friend or family, will forever impact the person that is fresh from losing everything, whether at-first you help them, and you later give them the boot, it will forever affect them. Interestingly enough, it will be the very last action that effected the new homeless person, that they will remember!
A homeless person has a substantial challenge ahead of them, they have to learn to negotiate social services, which at this point in their lives, they most likely have no idea where the office to start is located, and more importantly, the mental condition of this new homeless person is not entirely to stable.
This is the element that seems to start the most damage in the fastest time. The new homeless individual is going to be looking for “crutches” such as whatever they liked when they were solid with employment and housing, I would have to say the immediate crutch is going to be alcohol. Its still by far the easiest item to obtain, and you will find some high potency alcohol for little money, however the new homeless person has to figure this out.
Over the course of one month, the new homeless has not maintained hygiene, has lost weight, shows significant physical signs of stress and exhaustion etc, perhaps been sleeping in his or her car, at a shelter, or the worst of all, outside, in the unprotected.
The new homeless tragedy through the “underground” homeless network in every major city, is at least eating, he or she knows that there are multiple places to get food, and recently was told that he or she could go the Social Services office and participate in a welfare program, that would generate to them personally a couple hundred dollars a month! After a month on the street with nothing, this is a huge accomplishment. Almost instantly the person does what he or she needs to do to be half way presentable to do what is required, to gain the 0.00 to sustain their life. Its at this point that the mental position of this person if noticed, can be manipulated to into a variety of areas.
This new homeless person is battling several issues that is promoting the “on-the street” mentality. This very person that you once knew as a powerhouse thinker or perhaps an all-around nice person, is stuck in a mode of thinking that is strictly survival at best. No matter WHAT! This is the time that
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