Winter in the midwest.

I know that most of those "be thankful posts.." usually come around the holidays and some seem sort of trite and hollow. I walk to my office everyday, about 15 minutes, I just got here and it is -6 right now, before the wind. On my way into the office I saw this old man that I see occasionally, I don't know if hes homeless but I think he is a little nuts, he was standing on the sidewalk staring into space and he had 4 or 5 2 inch icicles hanging from his beard and mustache, like some arctic explorer. I cannot imagine, its so god damn cold out, I think my eyes are frost bitten.

the homeless are tough like that, but i think many of them have shelters they go to at night. i saw a special on tv where one had a sleeping bag good to -30 he slept in which kept him toasty and another time he found a box of porno dvd's he sold to some store for $200. The life of a hobo..

It just hit 0 (windchill -17) a few minutes ago, 'twas -4 when I did my morning walk. A short one today!

Porno resellers...all of the hobos would become millionaires!

battman323 said:

Porno resellers...all of the hobos would become millionaires!

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Don't forget the bum fight videos.

In my part of the Midwest it is still ZERO F. !

Yes, homelessness is a problem in my area but there are a few good shelters.

I used to work with the so-called "homeless" (And do NOT get me wrong here!) and found that many are "homeless" by choice but that also most are metally ill to an astonishing degree.

I know of one fellow in a nearby town who cleans bars at night and sleeps in one or the other of them but the guy owns THREE houses, which sit empty and deteriorating!

Another guy sleeps in the shelters and eats at food kitchens but owns a house in which he refuses to live because he believes the place to be infested with demons!

Very, very few of the so-called "homeless" are regular, normal people who have fallen into hard times.

Most are alcoholic, drug dependent or mentally ill and not capable of taking care of themselves.

Our legal system, however, prevents them from being institutionalised unless it can be clearly shown that they are a danger to themselves or others.

This situation is an unintended consequence of legislation designed to prevent abuses in the mental health system.

It's a problem but I don't have the answer.

I agree uptown,
I am a hospital social worker and you really hit the nail on the head. They usually want to be and then a dr. or nurse expects me to make them "different". What really makes it bad is when they develope serious medical problems and of course have no income or insurance.

Oh for sure.. I come from a family of doctors, shrinks, and social workers, there are very few true victims, sometimes its a victim circumstance - but usually its a victim of the bottle or crack pipe, or laziness.. At least in this country.

Speaking of which, its almost Friday and I cant wait to plant my lazy ass in a bar this weekend.. I'll leave the crack to the kids.

I am also in the midwest and when we get these below zero deg. temps, what sucks is many of the few shelters or warming centers close their doors after dark and when I am on call sometimes I get called into the er at 2 or 3 in the morning to try find shelter. If I am lucky they will let me call from home, sometimes I have to go in. After attempting to call around for about 1-2 hrs. I tell the dr. nothing is open in the middle of the nite and they let sleep in the waiting area, sometimes. Some of the homeless are a little smarter and state they are suicidal, even though we don't think they are, we have to go by what they say. Then it turns into a psych placement. Which can also take a lot of time in the middle of the nite, or force an admission. After they get placed the psych center turns them loose usually within 24-48 hrs. They do this when it is real cold for a meal and shelter for a night or two. If they are truely a victom of social circumstances then I feel bad for them, and those are the ones who appreciate the help and usually change their situation.

BuzzKill said:

Speaking of which, its almost Friday and I cant wait to plant my lazy ass in a bar this weekend.. I'll leave the crack to the kids.

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Don't forget the weed. LOL

justmeron said:

I agree uptown,
I am a hospital social worker and you really hit the nail on the head. They usually want to be and then a dr. or nurse expects me to make them "different". What really makes it bad is when they develope serious medical problems and of course have no income or insurance.

Click to expand...

Yes, I remember well a young woman who was diagnosed with severe paranoid schizophrenia who had written a song of which she was rather fond and would sing it for hours, with each subsequent verse slightly different than the one preceding it. This gal also had a genius IQ and would sometimes seeing the song in numbers instead of words. A university math prof heard her singing the song in numbers one day, so he recorded it.

Later in his office when he transcribed it, he found that the numbers corresponded to an extremely complex graph of the formula for a diminishing spiral!

This gal was used as a sex toy by the other "homeless" crazies, eventually killed and buried near a river.

I had to end my work with the "homeless" when I experienced "burnout" after a wonderful gal with whom I had an equally wonderful relationship experienced the adult onset of paranoid schizophrenia compounded with multiple personality disorder.

I came home one day and found that she had smashed the computers, stacked all the furniture in the house into the kitchen, had removed most of the sheet rock from the interior walls, such that the evil spirits living in the walls might be released, had killed her cat because she believed him to be a familiar of Satan and had set her car on fire to drive out the demons which had infected the engine.

Not making this up, by the way.

Turns out that not only did such maladies run in her family but that the causal or "triggering" factor in her case was most likely incredible sexual abuse perpetrated by her father and an uncle who is a "rocker"; one who rocks constantly while sitting.

The guy had a string of arrests but no convictions for sexual abuse of children; the family money had always bought off the victims.

How the Hell was I to know?

All of these things were closely guarded family "secrets" and the family denied all references to any kind of mental illness!

Since Daddy was more than well off, he scooped her up and took her to Europe where they would both be beyond the arm of US law.

I have no idea what became of her after that.

People often ask, why don't you talk to these "homeless" people and get them to change?

They are crazy, that's why!

Shit-house rat crazy and talking to crazy people is like talking to a telephone pole and just as effective.

That's why they are called "crazy"!

They cannot make rational decisions.

I do not mean anything bad by the use of the term "crazy"; those of you who have worked with the "homeless" will know what I mean!

Anyway, after that incident, I went into total burnout and can now only barely talk or write about the state of mental health treatment in this country and can no longer work with the "homeless" although I do occasionally act as a server at soup kitchens on holidays.

Carl Hiassen and Warren Zevon wrote up a song for Hiassen's book, "Basket Case", entitled the same, which very clearly describes the way that these people are and how the people who work with them can become:

"Basket Case"

by Warren Zevon and Carl Hiaasen

My baby is a basket case
A bipolar mama in leather and lace
Face like an angel--she's a perfect waste
My baby is a basket case

Dracula's daughter, Calamity Jane
Smoke on the water, water on the brain
She's pretty as a picture--and totally crazed
My baby is a basket case

She's gonna make a madman outta me
She's gonna make a madman outta me

She's manic-depressive and schizoid, too
The friskiest psycho that I ever knew
We're paranoid lovers lost in space
My baby is a basket case

My baby's gonna celebrate
I'm being dragged through the nuthouse gates
Got my straitjacket on and I'm taking her place
My baby is a basket case

She finally made a madman outta me
She finally made a madman outta me
My baby made a madman outta me
She finally made a madman outta me

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

And I'm going to have to get outta this thread because I'm pushing my own limits and want to go to the bar for fun this weekend, not to treat depression!

WoW, I know people here don't like thank you post. But thanks for shareing your personal life experiences with us. I can deff. understand what you were saying, working in the healthcare industry. I am burned out somewhat and that is my major motivation for getting my own online business.