In Drug and Alcohol Abuse and Homelessness Part I, we focused in on the starting stage of the nasty cycle of homelessness, and painted and spellbinding picture, and as each day goes, the cycle becomes more vicious to both community and to the private affected.
Lets take a moment to study a few things, first lets look at societies views on homelessness, and try to outline out why community as a whole has such a conflicting understanding on homelessness as a normal rule. We will continue to use and study the Greater Los Angeles area as the model.
Angeles Drug Los Rehab
Depending on which references you wish to use, you will see that Los Angeles is either ranked whole One or Two in the homeless population numbers, either it may be the cost of living, or the easy way to impairing substances, no one person is sure, any way this author feels that it is both.
People start using impairing substances to escape reality, they may take the drink at the bar to lose the inhibitions of dancing, talking or just being sociable, these are well known facts, after all, alcohol as a chemical is a depressant, it should be more commonly referred to as a sensitizers, but none the less the actions generated by use of alcohol is a very coarse and well understood and factual. Boredom, Anxiety, seeking a exhilarating highs, or looking for something that gives this person a "rush" or a vacation from reality is what using the impairing substance is all about.
How Any person manages their impairing substance is where the age old debate comes in, is it nature or is it nurture! If its nature, that would mean that the impairing affects of the chemical ingested would supervene in prosperous or desired effects, and negative withdrawals or downs which subsequently supervene with the disease aspects of substance abuse, would pose the query of, is it legitimately a persons Dna or genes that predetermines his or her personality, behavior or corporeal attributes to change with the simple use of a chemical?
Or is it nurture?
If its nurture, this would stem from the upbringing of the person and the experiences of this person, or the bio-psycho-social issues, was mom and dad users, was mom or dad big drinkers, did dad drink, and mom pop pills trying to deal with depression because of dads drinking, or was it any blend of items not mentioned, was it the environment in the neighborhood, schools, peer groups while the formulation years of early adolescence to late teens?
So I ask again...Was it nature or nurture?
The only person who knows this lovely inexpressive is the subject or new homeless person in this context, remember, this is a person that has a story, whom which at one point was a producing member of community and as of now is experiencing the devastating corporeal and mental effects of homelessness.
This person holds the key to comprehension what the very root causes of addiction are, and is the basis of study in the formulation of addiction. I feel quite safe in saying that addiction is a purely mental issue. Face it, if the uneducated is in a room full of alcohol, the body just does not reach out and grab something, curiosity does, curiosity provokes the corporeal act of reaching out and taking, and where does curiosity come from, it starts in Reticular arousal theory which is to be believed to have the most to do with alertness or intensity of attention, where is this at? Its in the brain, the brain sets the stage for the spellbinding to experiment, Not the pure voluntary corporeal being.
Society appears to have adopted some addictions as acceptable, lets look at your beloved coffee house, you know the one I am referring to, its right there on the projection as you drive from home to work, you see it every day, but oddly adequate you don't see a lot of them on television in the form of commercials etc, but none the less you see them permanently nearby town. They provide you with the morning mud, that brings about the feeling of peace and awakening, sometimes literally. They aim to please you with buyer service, and a warm cordial atmosphere and a great product.
What would happen if you stopped going to that or any other coffee store all together? Are they going to miss you as a company? Not a chance, is the staff going to miss you from a personal level? Possibly. But what about you! Are you going to have issues with irritability, are you going to "feel" out of sync with the day, off a step or two, so to speak! Try it and see what happens.
What we just examined above falls under the definition of addition, tolerant and dependent on something that is psychologically and or physically habit forming!
As one of my mentors Mr. Patrick Prince suggests..."if it does not impair we do not care!", in all fairness I like this statement, any way even though the item may not impair, does the act of the coffee issue as presented above portray a potential gateway through to added addictive based behaviors?
What I am speaking of, its the type of behavior where it consumes your thoughts and your time until you have it. I intensely believe it does. The legal aspects of addictions account for itself with the statement that Mr. Patrick Prince vocalizes, "If it does not impair, we don't care". Drink and drive with coffee, its fine, drink and drive with cigarettes and coffee, the law doesn't care, why?..."if it does not impair, we don't care".
Society accepts safe bet addictions with open arms... Is community situationally blind on these items? This author says no, any way I feel that community is a "picker and chooser" of standard addictions. community dictates that coffee is acceptable, while smoking is not, community feels that abusing prescribe medication is a no no, but healing marijuana is all-right.
All four of the combinations listed above are all habit forming either psychologically or physically, and sometimes both, there is a safe bet and a negative side to them socially and legally. Lets face this one as well, being that marijuana is creeping its way up to state unification towards federal legalization, the Only suspect that it has not been Federally and State standard as of yet is because science has been unable to outline out what the impairing level vs non impairing level dose is yet.
Society reveals an ugly side when it comes to homelessness and perceived addiction, the immediate assumption is that the homeless person is homeless stemming from the abuse of alcohol or drugs, the person that is always at the bus stop with a shopping cart full of plastic recycles is "hooked" on something. The worst part of this assumption is that it is commonly accurate. There are those that lost all things from abuse of impairing substances, but remember, they had something, prior to the impairing substance becoming a focal point, these population had a life!
However, remembering and knowing that this person has a story that brought them to your view today, and, subsequently Now knowing and comprehension that this person was at one point a producer in the local economy, and a tax wage generator, and may have had some "vices" as community likes to refer to closeted addiction, has industrialized a gigantic defense mechanism to the constant shuns and negativity by society, in the form of abusing impairing substances or escaping reality on a full time basis as long as the money is available at any and all costs to cover the expenses of the escaping tool.
This person is mentally at the top risk of negative outcomes of homelessness. They are purely functioning on impairing substances and eating very little, there condition is supremely at risk, and their mental condition is dissolving faster than ice cream in the Georgia summer.
This person is the power thinker that you may have known, this was the brother or sister of a friend that lost a close loved one recently, this is the principle bread winner in the family that lost all things and ran away because of a bad variable mortgage, this is a person with some serious mental issues that have manifested at this point in life in a reasonably short period of time, All of which stems from societies views and acceptance of what is right and what is wrong in terms of addictions. Remember, alcoholism was a socially standard addiction for a great deal of time in the not too distant past. Now, alcoholism is shunned heavily, proven by enhanced legislation, increased awareness via group service announcements etc.
Here is an all prominent query to think about in which I will write back from my expert bank of experiences which is merely a many view assimilation of subjects studied. What causes addictions to impairing substances and provokes mental decisions to be made to chase that all prominent "high", "rush", "escape" or mental vacation?
I firmly believe the write back is... Simply to escape, even just momentarily or possibly longer from the stresses and pains of reality, to try to gain or and endeavor to secure some sort of composure in dealing with a problem, problems, or issues that has adversely affected the person, and I also strongly feel that using to excess allows for a rest period both physically and mentally, either it may be passed out on the park bench, or nodding out and touching the innermost subconscious, its a break from reality in its entirety for a period certain.
Unfortunately this break from reality becomes so sought after, that all legitimate mental get tossed out the window. any way its the methods of escaping that draws the annotation from community when escalating to the top levels of negative or unacceptable addictions as defined by society. community deems standard escaping as going to the psychologist, counselor or spiritual counselor, and talking about the issues, drinking or using substances in the privacy of the home etc, community deems negative escaping as serious addictions that cause crime and other issues as a direct supervene of escapist behaviors.
Lets tie it all together.
Homelessness is not an addiction, lets be clear on this, I have read research that suggests that a person that is consistently mental about homelessness may have a inexpressive addiction or compulsion towards the fear of failure, and elements that originate homelessness. I would have to assuredly say, that would be the subconscious acting up and creating understanding patterns eluding to the realization and projection of homelessness, this would assuredly be an issue affecting the spiritual well being, There is a suspect the subconscious is acting up, caused by the addiction itself in the form of self management techniques (self-control) the person has industrialized over the term of their life, they will not realize that its the spiritual aspects that are in desperate need of improvement and address..
Our community is so hard on failure and addiction, failure is not part of the "American Way", community views failure is the acceptance of loss, or lack of success. This could not possibly be more incorrect and, as such could not be added from the truth, failure should be looked at as other way not to use towards to the ultimate success, and further, that many failures are to be addressed and required for the great element of success is attained. community looks at failure with a cancerous view, it avoids failure like the plague, or at least the image of failure, but what is the image of failure, is it the homeless? community says so. This authors definition of failure is simple, the loss of life due to addiction, the loss of living because of fear, the loss of living or life because of human negligence or misunderstanding.
Barring the psychological issues, there is compelling research dancing nearby the metaphysical elements study of science, that suggests, any safe bet mental is very mighty when it comes to realizing and attracting like.
Addiction works like a body builder. Bodybuilders work daily at the gym to tone, shape and manufacture a discipline equivalent to a Navy Seal, but a key item to remember is, a busting at the veins bodybuilder started off as an infant, as addiction does. Any addiction starts off as a small issue, in which given the space, potential and discipline to grow, will supervene into an issue that depending on the item, will gateway into all sorts of problems and addiction based behavior, either its missing the last 15 minutes of work to catch a show on television, or buying the pricey label of ice cream when its clearly not affordable, or the crack addict that has just completed the 15th theft of high dollar items to withhold their clearly non-socially standard addiction.
I am of the full confidence that addiction of any type either it's minor, possibly being the socially standard addiction, or major as in the substance areas or sexual areas, is a purely mental issue, having said that there is an element of corporeal addiction that must be determined when dabbling with items consumed, such as colas, foods or substances that are impairing or not.
Its the mental factor that we have to understand. The proximity of the slightest corporeal retirement indication of illness from something as innocent as drinking diet cola, and abruptly stopping, prominent to the subsequent sick that develops or the irritation that shows are pure examples of the corporeal attributes that are present with withdrawal, as you see, the innocence of diet soda or quarterly soda for that matter know no inequity from the retirement symptoms of alcohol, oxycontin or heroin. It is just measured in severity of retirement and actual corporeal effects of withdrawal.
So having said all of this about addiction, would it not make sense to look from within to find a cheap solution to an issue that we obviously know is not corporeal but mental? legitimately Yes!
The homeless subject that I have been referring to...lets go back and address this person from the time that I stated that the division of group group Services had the first real interaction. As history has shown, all entrants that physically appear to be homeless that walk into the Dpss offices are highly likely to be homeless. If the first person of contact, or possibly best stated, the person through the glass window focused on the person as an private rather than the noise of long lines and disgruntled line waiters mustering to "get em in and get em out", would that not originate the opportunity to visually assess, and listen to the person talking to that worker behind the glass, and get a good heads up reference to the next level worker that will have the opportunity to interview with more intent the person who is by all outward appearances homeless? Yes indeed.
This second level perceive would then start asking questions designed to get the full truth of the person that is seeking assistance barring any attempts to protect their pride, or vanity. The second level worker must have the transmit mental potential to decide on the spot to collate this situation immediately, any way Dpss and the sheer volume of population that it assists finds this to be a risky issue because of the time elements required to do this brief estimate to every person.
The case workers need to have more time to not so much closely involve themselves in the life of the person seeking benefits, they just Simply need to manufacture an element of caring, and an element of assessing with out classifying any one person based on a series of questions and worksheets. No two population are ever the same! Most importantly they must not present themselves as judges to the entrants, which are already mentally weak at the point of entry into the division of group Services.
Accepting that our homeless subject was treated with respect, and was immediately identified by the first contact, or the second contact, their odds of successfully retention this person permanently off the road has dramatically increased using the gigantic referral sources etc, thus breaking the cycle of homelessness! any way just giving this subject what he or she wants without added direction will only cause many stumbles and ultimately major falls on the way to re-integration into community and will ultimately lead to serious chemical escapist behavior for the client, and other issues stemming from the "black sheep" mentality.
In the next description we will go over the next stages of homelessness, and will cover some of the starting spiritual weapons that can be used to promote the homeless person as you see him or her to a level of mental that "I" am best than what population see, that "I" was not located here to be in this circumstance, and that no matter what, under the proper care and watchful eyes, of either those that have been through similar, exact or were trained by those that were have direct perceive with this population we will begin to manufacture core understandings of what makes this person tick, what made this person scholar the art of escapist behavior in the first place, and ultimately address the issues that stand at the root of this persons addictions and homelessness.
Remember something, the next time you see the person on the road, or at the coffee place, or at the bus stop, take a moment and think about what you have read and will read over the next weeks about this population, offer to give this person a business card with an 800 whole on it, that will provide them services to get off the street. It only takes a moment, and also, most of these population are so outwardly appearing negative, but inward they are soft and very vulnerable. Expect rejection, if it occurs, just place the card down and walk away, knowing that you helped to end the cycles of homelessness.
Alcohol and Drug Abuse and Homelessness Part Two
