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In the last few weeks, I have met with dozens of men and women who are both homeless and have been diagnosed with a psychiatric illness. I can truly say that it was both an honor and a privilege to meet them and my admiration for them is tremendous.
Now I must admit that I have had a very difficult time in the past. Lying in bed for months at a time, having suicidal and paranoid thoughts, going for ECT treatments and enduring numerous hospital stays was no picnic. But I was fortunate in many regards. I had my family. I also had money in the bank. Due mainly to these factors, I never had to worry about finding a place to live or where my next meal was coming from. I am positive that this sense of safety and security when it came to my food and shelter helped me greatly in my recovery process. Not worrying about such vital life-issues freed up my mind to concentrate on helping myself to regain my life.
Many of the people I met over the course of the last few weeks did not have these same luxuries. Just imagine that you are going through a major depression and possibly having feelings of mania or paranoia. Now imagine that on top of all that you have no idea where you will be sleeping or where or when your next meal is going to be. How can anyone focus on their recovery when they don’t know if and when their basic needs are going to be met?
During my encounters over the last few weeks I have also realized that there are many reasons why people become homeless. And although everyone I spoke to did have a psychiatric illness, the main reason most of them became homeless had little to do with that. I met some people who were homeless simply because there was no affordable housing available, even though some of them were working.
Others had been displaced from their previous apartments due to fire. Still others had been forced from their apartment or evicted, not because of a failure to pay rent or any other wrongdoing on their part, but rather because the building had become uninhabitable due to the landlord’s neglect.
So, when you compare my struggle with mental illness and recovery to others who did not have the same support as I had, I had it kind of easy by comparison.