I already saw a different shrink and he said I'm fine. My mom claimed I sabotaged the appointment or something, so wanted me to see another one. I guarantee if he put me on more meds they would watch me take them. I wasn't about to play ball with that. Anyway, if I lived at home I would still be doing dope each day. It was just a toxic environment, not that the streets are much better, but I wasn't going anywhere living there. I'm only going to be homeless for another 2 weeks at the most, so i'll be alright. The real kicker was that once I went home to grab a few things after a couple of days, my parents had ransacked my room and found my rigs, my paraphernalia, my baggies, etc... So basically they know I was selling and shooting dope. They took all my gold and any other valuables away from me since they expected me to sell it all, but little do they I know I've been doing this since for 6 years now and never sold my gold or any other possessions. They just figured that since they just found it out that all their stuff would suddenly disappear. They asked my brother what to do about all their stuff, and he said nothing, since he knows I've been on opioids since 2004 (he thinks it stopped at oxy though) and never stole anything.
Being homeless in the winter does suck, but it's not that terrible. I knew my first night out that I was never returning home. I went out to the city with the last of my money, and having know place to go back to was both scary and liberating. I went from bar to bar, taking subway to subway, with no idea where I was going to end up, and it felt great.
Everyone on the streets has their own hustle. Mine is one of the few legal ones, but I don't do it that often. Other than that I've been doing some panhandling, but I don't say I'm homeless and need money, I get dressed up and hit the train station saying I'm a few dollars short on a ticket and am stuck. I watch from the balcony as people buy tickets, and I mostly just ask women who I see have money in their wallets. I figure the older women picture me as their son who is stuck somewhere, so they are willing to pay for my whole ticket sometimes, or at least 2 bucks towards it. I'll let them buy me a ticket if they insist since I tell them I need to get to the city, but mostly I tell them I'll get the rest of the money from someone else, or that I'm taking a later train, this way they don't feel bad when I don't buy a ticket right after they give me the money. Sometimes I pretend to buy a ticket so they don't feel like suckers.
As for food I think I actually gained weight since being homeless. When it wasn't as cold and I was walking a lot I was burning most of it off, but now that it's really cold and I don't move around as much it's been piling on. I'm actually in a motel at the moment. If you play your cards right they will put you in a motel instead of a shelter, but that's usually just for the weekend, unless you are a married couple or a family. A lot more people show up to shelters for the weekend though, so they get too full and if you call late enough they will have a taxi bring you to the motel. The only downside of that is that you have to get your own food. If you still have foodstamps (most people sell theirs or buy cigs/beer with them so run out quick) you are set, but most homeless people have gotten decent at shoplifting so they get their food that way.
The biggest lesson that I have learned since being homeless is that disposable razors suck. I need my gillette fusion proglide back.
-Homeless 101
