Am I nuts or is it just them?

MrBishop

MrBishop

Well-Known Member
Well...just came back from my break and as I was walking quickly around the block, I came upon a homelss guy that I know...or rather, I should say I knew him.

I used to talk to this guy semi-regularly. He had a good sence of humour and an interesting gimmick for getting the odd coin tossed his way. He seemed pretty much 'all there' except for his choice of lifestyle.

Just saw him a few minutes ago, and he's degraded like even I wouldn't have believed. He's turned into a bag-man (carrying a good dozen bags plus a large box filled with miscelaneous crap), he's walking in the middle fo the street, he's screaming into mid-air and not making a whole lot of sense. He's filthy (when he was fairly well groomed for a homeless guy a few short months ago), and foul-mouthed.

Well....I guess that he's flipped his lid, or gone off his meds. I must be nuts to feel bad for him having lost his mind, or perhaps I'm feeling bad because there are precious few sane homless people out there and I liked this guy.

So, am I nuts to worry about this nameless homless man or just feeling a little down because the world got a wee bit bleaker today?
 
I'm sure there's a star twinkling up there for you, bish... You're just too good-hearted.
 
Thanks Tonksy and Kawaii.
My problem is that I keep my heart on ym sleeve and that this time of the year, it gets a wee bit cold. Gotta take it inside to warm it up a bit :)

Wish I'd had the time to actually drag this guy to our Drop-In center downstairs. :(
 
you do have a big heart but you dont know what hapepned between the last time you saw him and this time. he may always have been insane or as Kawaii said he might have drank himself to that point or drugs or whatever. I wouldnt worry too much about it unless it becomes a problem
 
Yes ma'am, it's always a choice. If he is/was beyond reasoning, then it's up to his family or doctor. If he decided to (drink/drug) humself to this pont, it was still a choice.
 
it's NOT always a choice. In illness when you're this far gone family and doctor don't necessarily know.

I know mine didn't when I was right about there a couple months ago...and if my saviour hadn't been home that day when my last smidge of sanity reached out, there but for the grace of god go I :shrug:
 
dammit, no one says "i think i'll choose to be homeless today", no one even says "i think i'll choose to be poor today"...you make decisions that put you were you are, yes...but that doesn't mean you chose to be in that situation...no one is 100% in their decision making and you just never know what is around the bend to upset your applecart....that being said people do have to make the decision to try and do something about their present situations....but nothing gives people the right to say that they deserved what they got....maybe they did and maybe they didn't but people reminding them of it over and over again doesn't nothing to help.
 
Tonks, here's a choice

A)Alcohol until my liver bursts;

or

B)My house payment.


Those are choices that lead to other choices. But it usually is that simple.
 
Gonz said:
Tonks, here's a choice

A)Alcohol until my liver bursts;

or

B)My house payment.


Those are choices that lead to other choices. But it usually is that simple.
Click to expand...
well...yeah...but what about the rest of those poor saps that can't make the rent...surely they are not all drinking away the rent...it's not always that simple. :shrug:
 
It's stories like this that sadden me, what's even sadder are peoples black and white attitude toward people who are in that situation. You can't generalize thier state of minds. It's NOT that simple, really.
 
Granted, there are exceptions. Few & far between I'm afraid.

The woman & her two kids. She works a crappy warehouse job & they got kicked out of their slum apt. Instead of choosing to apologize to her parents she has all 3 on the streets. Bad choice.

The guy who was going merrily toward retirement & had a heart attack 3 months after his wife succumbed to cancer. Instead of selling his house & moving to a more affordable place, he waited for the sheriff. Bad choice.

Go live in Venice California for awhile. You hear them all. First the lies. Then the truth. The lies were better.
 
it's NOT always a choice. In illness when you're this far gone family and doctor don't necessarily know.


I have to totally agree with you there Leslie!!!!
Sometimes in life ppl DO make bad choices - sometimes they dont realize the reality of the bad choices untill its too late. Some due to illness or alcohol or drugs or perhaps life in general doesnt go their way and they think there is no solution but to feel pitty and wallow in their sorrow....
BUT - there can be an UP SIDE!!!! Help from friends and family and doctors, and MOST IMPORTANT the WANTING to turn your life around and lift your head up high and say "I CAN DO WHATEVER I PUT MY MIND TO" -and dammit DO IT!!! Or you will wither away and die...

So, the moral for me Bish - is your heart is in the right place-BUT- unless this lad you thought you knew, wants to be helped, or ever asked you for help, there's nothing you can do right now-but say some prayers and hope he see's there can be a way out of what you get in... But thats just mu opinion..

God Bless & I'll say a prayer for "Mr. J. Doe"........(since I dont know his name...)
 
Mare said:
Sometimes in life ppl DO make bad choices
Click to expand...

So they made a choice?

Mare said:
sometimes they dont realize the reality of the bad choices untill its too late.
Click to expand...

Yet it was their choice?

Mare said:
Some due to illness or alcohol or drugs...
Click to expand...

We'll give illness a pass, for the sake of convenience.

One chooses to drink.

One chooses to drug.

We've known the probabilities of those actions for how many decades?

Mare said:
or perhaps life in general doesnt go their way.
Click to expand...

:rofl3:

tuff shit.
 
i'm going to have to back Gonz on this. the drunks i see are all on the street from their own choice and by their own admission. they dont want a regular life and instead have chose to drink themselves into oblivion. for what reason, i dont know. we've had family come into the ED looking to reconnect with missing family members and they always end up leaving empty.
the homeless wandering the streets because of mental illness are another matter all together. there is no place for them to go. its tough enough finding a bed for people that want the help, let alone for the people that have slipped through the cracks.
 
Gonz says:

:rofl3:

tuff shit. EXACTLY my point - either shit or get off the pot all together...

But me being a human being with a heart - I feel sorry for the person that can't do neither because they are oblivious to the posibilities the world CAN offer them if they only took the time to STOP - LOOK - and LEARN.....To them there is no other option in life -more less they gave up...
 
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