Sad

[Spallalala]

Well yeah..this is a sad thread.

Came across a homeless lady tonight on our bike ride through the town. I felt horrible when I saw her and wanted to help her out being the nice person I am.. Looking at her she must have been in her late 70's maybe early 80's. She was just sitting at the bus stop leaning over to sleep on her suitcase that she has with her. She must have been on the streets for a few months now from the smell.
Anyway. Went up to her asked if she was ok and that I wasn't there to harass her. What did I get from her.. "BUZZ OFF"..and twice I might add. I just wanted to scream at her for being like that but I can understand why. I was gonna get her some food but yknow, she didn't wanna talk to me.

Shortly after we left I just burst into tears cos seeing this kinda shit is a rare thing around here. And seeing that she was a older homeless person it just hit me hard.

I mean wtf goes on when you see a old woman on the streets. It shouldnt happen. Its fucked up and wrong.

Has seeing a person in need of help just made you cry? or am I just too sensitive.

[Angra]

Well yeah..this is a sad thread.

Came across a homeless lady tonight on our bike ride through the town. I felt horrible when I saw her and wanted to help her out being the nice person I am.. Looking at her she must have been in her late 70's maybe early 80's. She was just sitting at the bus stop leaning over to sleep on her suitcase that she has with her. She must have been on the streets for a few months now from the smell.
Anyway. Went up to her asked if she was ok and that I wasn't there to harass her. What did I get from her.. "BUZZ OFF"..and twice I might add. I just wanted to scream at her for being like that but I can understand why. I was gonna get her some food but yknow, she didn't wanna talk to me.

Shortly after we left I just burst into tears cos seeing this kinda shit is a rare thing around here. And seeing that she was a older homeless person it just hit me hard.

I mean wtf goes on when you see a old woman on the streets. It shouldnt happen. Its fucked up and wrong.

Has seeing a person in need of help just made you cry? or am I just too sensitive.



............................ It´s you..

;)

[Spallalala]

haha geez thanks.

[Nikkif8]

Well yeah..this is a sad thread.

Came across a homeless lady tonight on our bike ride through the town. I felt horrible when I saw her and wanted to help her out being the nice person I am.. Looking at her she must have been in her late 70's maybe early 80's. She was just sitting at the bus stop leaning over to sleep on her suitcase that she has with her. She must have been on the streets for a few months now from the smell.
Anyway. Went up to her asked if she was ok and that I wasn't there to harass her. What did I get from her.. "BUZZ OFF"..and twice I might add. I just wanted to scream at her for being like that but I can understand why. I was gonna get her some food but yknow, she didn't wanna talk to me.

Shortly after we left I just burst into tears cos seeing this kinda shit is a rare thing around here. And seeing that she was a older homeless person it just hit me hard.

I mean wtf goes on when you see a old woman on the streets. It shouldnt happen. Its fucked up and wrong.

Has seeing a person in need of help just made you cry? or am I just too sensitive.


It is sad but most homeless have made the choice to be that way and are usually very rude like that it. It's too bad but it is better to just walk on by.

[Angra]

haha geez thanks.



I admire your kindheartedness though. :)

Always had i soft spot for those kind of actions.

[The Flayed One]

When I was 19, there was a homeless man that used to live right on my path to work. McDonalds used to have $.39 cheeseburgers then, so I'd buy him 2 and give them to him. He was always thankful and polite.

He died of cancer a year later. I just hope that I did something to make the last year of his life a little better. He was a vietnam war vet cripple, and I respect what he did for our country, even though I think war is a rediculous thing. I'm hoping he's sleeping peaceful right now, wherever he is.

[Roderick Usher]

Yes, some homeless have made the choice to live outside society's dictates, but a far greater number are mentally ill.

I don't know how it works in Sydney but a Chicago Tribune study some years back determined that over half the homeless in Chicago were schizophrenics. Many were formerly residents of mental institutions who no longer had insurance or were deemed "harmless" to the general public, so the are relasesed on their own recognizence - and without suitable emotional and interpersonal skills, they end up jobless, homeless and alone.

Yes, it breaks my heart, but one-on-one help does little good. Change must be made in the way we treat our mentally ill.

Canada does a pretty good job - they sometimes even let Urge use the computer all on his own like a big boy:D

[Haunted]

Lala, ignore the incompassionate remarks. You're absolutely right. It's very sad. Her reaction towards your gesture of kindness may have been totally out of her control. She may have severe mental disorders that cause severe mood swings. It's possible that she wondered away from an elderly care center. I hope the case is not that her family drove her away.

I think what you did was awesome. Should you see her again, maybe call the emergency line and let a medical team know where she is. It's possible that she has alzheimer's as well (and on top of other things mentioned above). Since she's elderly they may be able to get her some care. It's also possible that her family is looking for her, as alzheimer's patients often wander away from home.

It's not that you were over sensitive, it's that you were overcome with compassion. There's never been anything wrong with that.:)

[urgeok]

Canada does a pretty good job - they sometimes even let Urge use the computer all on his own like a big boy:D

until my diapers are full then they come and get me and make me eggs.

[urgeok]

We do have a homeless problem in the major centres (mainly Toronto)
but not much elsewhere - the climate may have something to do with that.

I was in Washington DC once on a course and i was appauled by the amount of homeless people there (nations capitol ??!!)
not to mention the incessant sirens .. it just never stopped .. freaked me out.

I have some pretty mixed feelings about the homeless... as Roderick 'squid-boy' Usher said above - the greatest number of them are people who cannot function in society because of various degrees of mental illness.
By that same reasoning they refuse to live in shelters because they dont have the reasoning powers to come in out of the cold or to understand that there are rules to follow in a shelter that wouldnt kill them to follow. (the canadian winters will and do kill them on a regular basis)

Sometimes I do lose compassion though. Everyone has had it with the kids who panhandle - wearing 150$ doc martins and heads full of hair care products. (the kids that bus in from the 'burbs because they see the 'life on the street as something romantic... until they're actually hungry and run home.

there was one guy in particular i developed a (unjust) hate for several years ago. I was working in a job i hated for a prick of a boss.. every day i had to pass this guy with his hand out on my way to and from my personal 8 hours of thankless hell .. and i developed a great resentment for this guy. Mostly because of my personal circumstance - but also because of this look he'd give me ...

things got better for me eventually and i could see my way to try to understand his circumstance and i didnt hate him anymore and was shameful for how i felt ...

the people that really piss me off are the people who sit on their asses at home collecting unemployement because they simply dont like to work.
I'll always hate those bastards no matter what..

[Vodstok]

Unemployment sucks.. People who pull that shit must have no dignity at all. when i wa son unemployment for 3 months this past year, it was probably the most humiliating time of my life. Not to mention they make you go to classes where they teach you things you already know, like how to not screw up a resume and where to find job listings...

i have not really had any personal interaction with any homeless people, but i try to reserve my judgement of people until i find out what kind they are.

[urgeok]

Unemployment sucks.. People who pull that shit must have no dignity at all. when i wa son unemployment for 3 months this past year, it was probably the most humiliating time of my life. Not to mention they make you go to classes where they teach you things you already know, like how to not screw up a resume and where to find job listings...

i have not really had any personal interaction with any homeless people, but i try to reserve my judgement of people until i find out what kind they are.



i've never been on unemployement in my life .. I have only been unemployed for less than 2 months since i was 15 years old and that was after a huge layoff .. i had another job after a short while and lived off the money they had to pay me for vacation time.

again - there are people who are unemployed (that arent mentally ill) for various reasons.. certain conditions led people to be unskilled (stay at home wives/mothers who suddenly find themselves single) .. .but the ones that bug me are perfectly able - and scoff at the idea of taking a job that'll pay them the same as unemployment insurance will. why bother when they can sit at home, pound back the beer and watch the ol bigscreen TV - until it gets repossessed.


i guess they are indeed victims of the most common of all mental illnesses - chronic stupidity ...
nothing can be done for those people.

[Vodstok]

Very true.


My case was pretty stupid.... Here is an anaology because it make more sense to more people.

I program in C#, we'll call it spanish. Now there are other languages similar to spanish; italian, french and portuguese are all romantic languages, so techically, if you know spanish, you might be able to fumble around in the other 3.

So i got a job, based on my ability to write in spanish fluently, for a big spanish project they had on the horizon. in the meantime, i was farmed out reams of work, little jobs here and there. Another note about my background, i always had a 3rd part to double check that my spanish was good, well formatted and didnt contain any bugs, basically a QA check.

This place expected the devlopers to check their own work 100%. This is inherently impossible as no one person can anticipate all the posibilities of how a given program will be used. Quaity Assurance from a 3rd party is necesarry, which is why every big sompany with developers has an entire department dedicated to it.

Anyway, my workload consisted of 2 spanish programs the WHOLE TIME i was there, and a ton of work in italian, french, portuguese, flemish, and even a little luxemborg dialect. i was then fired after 6 months because they "didnt have confidence in my abilities", because doing all the work myself in languages i was unfamiliar with (not to mention many I learned FOR THEM) i didnt crank out 100% perfect work in record time. Lets not forget i didnt get along real well with the guy who scheduled things, and was a barely adequate programmer himself. The guy who knew his shit got a long with me just fine, I even consider him a friend

[urgeok]

Very true.


My case was pretty stupid.... Here is an anaology because it make more sense to more people.

I program in C#, we'll call it spanish. Now there are other languages similar to spanish; italian, french and portuguese are all romantic languages, so techically, if you know spanish, you might be able to fumble around in the other 3.

So i got a job, based on my ability to write in spanish fluently, for a big spanish project they had on the horizon. in the meantime, i was farmed out reams of work, little jobs here and there. Another note about my background, i always had a 3rd part to double check that my spanish was good, well formatted and didnt contain any bugs, basically a QA check.

This place expected the devlopers to check their own work 100%. This is inherently impossible as no one person can anticipate all the posibilities of how a given program will be used. Quaity Assurance from a 3rd party is necesarry, which is why every big sompany with developers has an entire department dedicated to it.

Anyway, my workload consisted of 2 spanish programs the WHOLE TIME i was there, and a ton of work in italian, french, portuguese, flemish, and even a little luxemborg dialect. i was then fired after 6 months because they "didnt have confidence in my abilities", because doing all the work myself in languages i was unfamiliar with (not to mention many I learned FOR THEM) i didnt crank out 100% perfect work in record time. Lets not forget i didnt get along real well with the guy who scheduled things, and was a barely adequate programmer himself. The guy who knew his shit got a long with me just fine, I even consider him a friend


thats someone elses chronic stupidity ... cant do much about that ..

[Vodstok]

very true. The great thing was that after 3 months of constant searching and interviewing, i managed to land a job that paid almost twice as much, right out of the gate. Too bad for the old guys....


I think i make more than their CEO....

[Haunted]

This is something that I'm very passionate about, mental health and jobs. It sucks when you can't find work. It really sucks when you can't work. I'm hesitant to talk about this because disability causes people to freak out.

I have two health problems that my doctors consider disabling, and therefore they don't want me working. It sucks for two reasons: I'm broke and my folks are feeding me. People are so biased to the point of ignorance on the subject that it's tiresome and irritating to listen to the criticism.

Mental disorders don't care how smart you are or how strong you are. Bipolar disorder really puts a cramp in your life. One month you're so depressed that you can get out of bed. After you get out of that hump you go through a month where you're so erratic that you can't focus, you're violently happy, or pissed off. Then I've got panic disorder where I could be sitting in a room and suddenly become absolutely petrified at nothing.

Here's the thing though, I've been busting my butt to get better. Once the meds started having an effect, I got off of my butt and started excercising and eating better. I journal my moods to figure out what causes problems. I want to make my life better. I want to get better, but I'll never be rid of either of these, but I may be able to control my reactions to the point that I can have a normal life. That's my goal.

Chronic headaches ruin every day. Last week I had an MRI, and we were scared to death that I had a brain tumor due to the pain I've been experiencing...constantly. What I do have can be treated with physical therapy and antiinflammatory meds and physical therapy. Right now, I have to take heavy narcotics, which are useful, but also dangerous and I hate them.

So, in the new year, there are a lot of lucrative jobs coming to town. Hopefully I will get clearance from my doctors to go to work. I want to. I want to be independant. I want to give back to my parents, so that they can... say, go to England and Ireland as I did a few years ago. You know... And then finally finish my book.

I'm sharing this with you so that you'll get a sense that not all people who are unemployed are schleps. I hate not being productive. I hate the condescension. So... um... I like what Usher was saying about mental health care. A lot of people see it as bogus, which is ignorant and part of the problem. If people will start seeing these disorders as actual problems, then a lot more people will start getting better. Those people, in turn, can become more productive and lead better lives.

[Vodstok]

I feel for you, haunted.... I HATED unemployment....

[Spallalala]

[QUOTE=urgeok;500575 i guess they are indeed victims of the most common of all mental illnesses - chronic stupidity ...
nothing can be done for those people.[/QUOTE]


So thats whats wrong with me...Thanks for clearing that up.