"No more talking about the homeless"

[Heidi Mull]

YOU'VE BEEN ADOPTED!!!  You're their new mommy! 

Congratulations! 

This biting sarcasm is a big reason why so many homeless and severely disabled folks take their own life, or let themselves die.

I used to be in an online community of very self-sufficient people. Many there would state, repeatedly, emphatically, that they'd rather die than accept charity. I think a significant factor to that thinking is how much the need for help is stigmatized, by people like you who mock and blame.

I don't like accepting help either, but I spent 8 years of my life prior to living on the streets almost completely bedridden and with such severe neurological issues I often could not remember I was hungry long enough to request food, or remember the beginning of your sentence by the time you reached the end of it. I was incapable of handling any administrative duties in my life including finances, any phone calls, or any paperwork. I saw dozens of doctors and specialists each year and by about the 3rd year was given absolutely no hope of recovery.

This began when I was 16 years old. I was independent as all get-out, completed a semester in college with a 4.0 gpa despite missing the last 2 weeks entirely due to illness. Then I had a friend carry me around campus and I'd lay down on the floor during classes. But then I became too ill even for that, and I couldn't drop out of my own classes because I couldn't even remember the names of my friends, let alone my teachers.

I was facing the prospect of being heavily dependent on caregivers for the rest of my life. Though, it's worth noting the suffering was worse than the disablement.

Attitudes like yours result in a culture where people feel like if they need a lot of help, then they're worthless. I had to find my way to learning that's not the case.

I hope you do too.