17 January, 2006

My own thoughts

Writing this blog is I think is a privilege for me just to be showing everyone just how far I have come in such a short space of time but it still seems strange for me to see pictures of people on street corners buying their drugs and homeless people sleeping out on the streets and the fact that I am no longer a member of that club is still strange.
What is really frustrating for me and so many other people is that so many people like myself needed that extra helping hand. I was lucky I met some really nice people and the rest for me is history but some are not so lucky. They don't see anyway to escape the vicious circle of homelessness, drugs, alcohol or even illness. I hear about people suffering from anorexia or depression. These are just a couple of the things that can cause people to become unsettled. The outcome? They suffer a mental illness as well as physical and the struggle to survive is terrifying, but it's just another cause as to why someone might become homeless and end up with another addiction.
In society we have a number of problems from young people going to jail and coming out with no hope. To the long term homeless with no real prospect of being housed too many problems are what some people are saying. To normal everyday people just not being able to cope.
We have all these people shouting at the top of their voices saying prevention, prevention. I know like so many others that we need to prevent the young from becoming those people without hope. We need to prevent people from suffering the humiliation of sleeping on the streets and becoming societies outcasts. We need to see mental illnesses coming before they get to the stage of breakdown. Because that's what it really is one persons inability to cope. I'm still of the opinion that helping someone recover from what illness they have suffered is only half the battle. Learning how to cope if that illness returns is the other half. It's doesn't matter if you are homeless or not. The toughest battle is to fight something you know and are afraid of like myself. I am afraid that one mistake could be the end for me. It's not that I wouldn't try all over again. It's the question, have I the strength to go through all that again? Funny here I am writing this not really thinking about what I'm saying but just knowing what's right. Strange don't you think?

1 comment:

womble said...

You have so many wise thoughts, Jamie. Vulnerable people need help to help themselves. They don't necessarily want things doing for them, just a helping hand, a pointing in the right direction, the appropriate professional help. And yes, following your earlier blog, access to services that the rest of us take for granted like the dentist.