• Welcome Guest

    Forum Guidelines Bluelight Rules
    Fun 💃 Threads Overdosed? Click
    D R U G   C U L T U R E

Are homeless people/beggers like that cos of heroin or would they be like that anyway

B

Berdo tm1

Bluelighter
Joined
Feb 10, 2014
Messages
245
A few quiries...

There are some homeless people in my city who are literally like little golems from lord of the rings. I wonder how they allow themselves to get so bad? Surely they must be in pain all the time form the looks of them. Does the analgesic effect of opiates just make you not care? There is alot of ppl on this forum who seem to take opiates and not be like that so why do these guys end up that bad?

Quite a few of them Ive seen had amputations of toes and even legs. Like Ill see them getting progressively more chopped off them as time goes by just seeing them degrade over time. Is this from heroin and shooting into the wrong places causing the limbs to die?

A couple of them don't even seem to have grown properly I have no idea what caused this? they are like the size of 10 year old children with complexions like ghosts and gaunt faces. Soooo sooo skinny and forlorn. It's also very hard to tell if they are male or female.

It isnt meth cos that is not a big thing in the UK. So it must be either crack or heroin right or a heady combo of both? Again tho there are many memebers on here through reading their posts they use the same substances but form what I read things aren't so bad for them?

Also one of them has the most disgusting habit of always hacking like they have the biggest wads of phlegm in their throat and they will be hacking for 15-30 seconds at a time like they are choking then they spit up goodness knows what.

1. what causes such symptoms?

2. are there 'high functioning addicts', if so what percentage of the 'heroin population' are driven to the streets?

Ofc there are plenty of alcoholic homeless people too and there are also plenty of people who drink alot and lead 'normal lives' hence why I ask if drugs drive them to the street or that they are more of a catalyst and their life events would likely have led them there anyhow.

I've read before how the homeless ones are the 'most visible' so those are the ones you always see and hear about so unless you're in that 'scene' then you wouldn't really get an accurate cross section of what the real percentage of 'high functioner' vs 'total down and out' would be (or anything in between). Now ofc its not in debate that these 'hard drugs' have a very high likelihood of causing such problems but it's how much of a factor vs other life situations which would encourage it.

For example I took crack a few times and once it was done it was like 'ok thats enough of that' and got on with my life- tho ofc it's tempting fate to do this and not something I plan to repeat. Im guessing for the people who have less going on in their life then they might think the same for a bit but then other pressures would just push them into a bad habit/vicious cycle.

Thoughts?
 
it strongly depends on the person. first off, homeless people don't look that way just because of heroin, but because of a lot of factors like: shooting with old and/or used syringes
poor hygene
poor diet
bad lifestyle

and to answer the last paragraph: also here it depends on the person. for example I know this homeless who was a junkie by the age of 18, and then his parents died leaving himself with 60.000 €. you can imagine what happened.
so maybe if he didn't end up with such sum of money maybe now he would't be where he is, but who knows really.
 
Homelessness can be caused by any number of things.
Drugs - sure, but also falling on hard times with nobody to help you out, the effects of huge life-altering events (such as incarceration, mental illness, relationship breakdowns, bankruptcy, gambling problems, lack of support networks - be they family, friends, or welfare support through government, charities etc).

I think a lot of people would be surprised how many homeless people have university degrees, previously held good jobs and maintained other benchmarks of "functioning" in society, but either fell on hard times, slipped through the cracks or had a run of bad luck (three very clichéd phrases) that led to them losing grip of the material and social threads that provide adequate income to support themselves and keep a roof above their heads.
One thing is certain; it is a lot easier to become homeless than it is to find your way out of homelessness.

Drugs are often a symptom of poverty, rather than a cause of poverty - it important not to see drug use as the root cause of every social problem in which drugs are a feature.
I'm sure plenty of people's addictions stem from whatever caused their homelessness, just as some folk end up homeless because of their drug habits.
It depends in the time and place as much as the individual. The Great Depression of the 1930s resulted in huge amounts of people across the world losing their livelihoods and homes. These weren't necessarily people that had addictions - in many cases the events that left them with nothing were completely out of their hands.

The same goes for victims of natural disasters like floods, fire, earthquakes, tsunamis as well as wars, political turmoil, persecution or whatever leads people to lose all of their social or material security.
It may be increasingly common in wealthy countries, but it is even more so in impoverished places.

The same principle applies to the homeless people in cities and towns in developed nations across the world; some are certainly in that situation because of drug use - some are victims of circumstance or a society that has little compassion for it's most vulnerable people.

The widespread drug testing of workers only serves to increase the numbers of homeless people, as losing your job with no other means of support (whether the individual has control over their drug use or not) is the perfect set of circumstances to tip someone into a situation of homelessness and dire poverty.
It's a cruel world.
 
Last edited:
A lot of homeless people are alcoholics or just plain mentally Ill. The United States tends to put the mentally ill in jails and prisons rather than long term treatment, so people who are unemployable due to severe mental illness often find themselves homeless or imprisoned. .
 
bunge said:
^
superb post. Ive nothing to add except a big +1 to the above post.
Click to expand...

Why, thank you :)

It's a topic of great concern for a lot of people, especially with the current global financial situation and the cost of housing in a lot of places being absurdly high.
 
wow. just want to say i had cousins that were born with horrible diseases that stunted their growth. the alcoholic mom even knew she would pass it on... they just happen to become addicts of all kinds... all died in their 40s too. one was severly gang beaten and robbed too. it was awful. but he was white, and always looked like a deformed, dark skinned, 4 foot tall native american. heroin and other drugs just made it worse, but didnt "cause" "the look" op mentions.

lets all hope society gets better, not worse, and hopefully we will see much less of these sad cases. my hometown flint mi is hell... just like detroit or worse. its becoming so that u get begged everywhere u go... or see a very sad situation. i remember a couple id see on the west side, the guy must have had a severe ear infection, the girl had bruises and scars all over her face, and they even had a poor old pit mix with them that needed help too. our animal control refuses any pit mixes, no wonder the dog was stuck with them. they even used sit in front of the state police office. wtf?! i hope they got help. i used to feed this other guy's cat, ugh i have to stop. so sad.

be thankful for what u do have i geuss.
 
+1 spacejunk

I was homeless when I was 18 for just a little under a year, and I only got out of it because someone let me live with them until I found a job.

Due to the way our system is in the UK, there wasn't really any help for me. I came from an area where there wasn't really any services, so I moved into an area where there was services. However because I wasn't from the new area, the local authority and some charity services like the YMCA were unable to help me unless I was an addict, a victim of abuse/violence, had debilitating mental health issues or dependents - I was out of the criteria for help.

Surprisingly, the best help I got was from the Department of Work and Pensions who allowed me to sign on even though I was NFA (no fixed abode) my then advisor gave me JSA on the basis that I would look for three jobs a fortnight which she did with me - I thought that was a pretty lucky break for me.

Retrospectively looking back, the fact that I thought receiving the bare minimum the government thinks you need to live off as a lucky break, and the fact that I didn't appear within the criteria for help shows me that our welfare system is not without fault, I wonder how many people aren't even allowed to sign on.

JSA gave me some income which allowed me to eat (which, without cooking facilities, is expensive and leads to a pretty limited diet) and provided me some money to save (Which got robbed, twice!).

If I had been able to save it I would still be left in a catch 22 - unable to get a job without a place of residence and unable to get a place of residence without a job, even if I could save up for rent and a deposit (£600+).

Basic necessities like food and showering is challenging in this situation. There was some public showers on the beach, so I'd shower there, Supermarket reduced food late at night and the kindness of strangers kept me going.

It's not a situation I'd wish upon anyone - surprisingly other people in the same situation were attracted to me like magnets, I don't know how they knew. I met some interesting characters, some quite educated people, and did my best to avoid those with issues - drugs, alcohol, mental health, but this was sometime unavoidable.

My situation put me in some compromising and outright dangerous situations, I wouldn't change my experiences for anything, but I would never wish it upon anyone.

In the end I got a lucky break - someone was kind enough to give me the opportunity to get out of that situation, which I did. Many don't get that opportunity.
 
spacejunk said:
Homelessness can be caused by any number of things.
Drugs - sure, but also falling on hard times with nobody to help you out, the effects of huge life-altering events (such as incarceration, mental illness, relationship breakdowns, bankruptcy, gambling problems, lack of support networks - be they family, friends, or welfare support through government, charities etc).

I think a lot of people would be surprised how many homeless people have university degrees, previously held good jobs and maintained other benchmarks of "functioning" in society, but either fell on hard times, slipped through the cracks or had a run of bad luck (three very clichéd phrases) that led to them losing grip of the material and social threads that provide adequate income to support themselves and keep a roof above their heads.
One thing is certain; it is a lot easier to become homeless than it is to find your way out of homelessness.

Drugs are often a symptom of poverty, rather than a cause of poverty - it important not to see drug use as the root cause of every social problem in which drugs are a feature.
I'm sure plenty of people's addictions stem from whatever caused their homelessness, just as some folk end up homeless because of their drug habits.
It depends in the time and place as much as the individual. The Great Depression of the 1930s resulted in huge amounts of people across the world losing their livelihoods and homes. These weren't necessarily people that had addictions - in many cases the events that left them with nothing were completely out of their hands.

The same goes for victims of natural disasters like floods, fire, earthquakes, tsunamis as well as wars, political turmoil, persecution or whatever leads people to lose all of their social or material security.
It may be increasingly common in wealthy countries, but it is even more so in impoverished places.

The same principle applies to the homeless people in cities and towns in developed nations across the world; some are certainly in that situation because of drug use - some are victims of circumstance or a society that has little compassion for it's most vulnerable people.

The widespread drug testing of workers only serves to increase the numbers of homeless people, as losing your job with no other means of support (whether the individual has control over their drug use or not) is the perfect set of circumstances to tip someone into a situation of homelessness and dire poverty.
It's a cruel world.
Click to expand...


↑↑↑↑↑↑

This person pretty much summed up everything about how a person can become homeless & desperate.........& its definitely a cruel world, especially if you don't have someone to love & love you back.
 
Berdo tm1 said:
2. are there 'high functioning addicts',
Click to expand...

Well, nowadays it's certainly not as big a thing as it was before, but just from the proportion of Bluelighters that use heroin, wouldn't you say it seems like there are quite a lot? Homeless people typically don't have constant internet access.
 
Psychonauticunt said:
Well, nowadays it's certainly not as big a thing as it was before, but just from the proportion of Bluelighters that use heroin, wouldn't you say it seems like there are quite a lot? Homeless people typically don't have constant internet access.
Click to expand...

^ I used to work door to door and once in a while someone would open the door with pinned eyes, now that I think about that it was always on nice housing estates too.

I think there's probably more functional junkies than there are dysfunctional, but it just so happens that the functional ones are never obvious, and we're all too used to seeing the dysfunctional ones congregating in town centres. In part I think it's that minority that keep a lot of the stigma around.

Just my $0.02
 
Psychonauticunt said:
Well, nowadays it's certainly not as big a thing as it was before, but just from the proportion of Bluelighters that use heroin, wouldn't you say it seems like there are quite a lot? Homeless people typically don't have constant internet access.
Click to expand...

I'm with cognito on this, I think more people are "functioning addicts" than you'd think, it's just the minority that give most a bad name. You should be aware however that this creates a false dichotomy between an "addict" and someone who is simply dependent on an addictive substance.

Think of the hundreds of thousands of prescriptions for opiates, benzodiazepines, amphetamines, Z-drugs, etc. which are written in America alone. Of course some of those are one-off, break your leg and get 30# Vicodin at the ER. But most of those millions of pills go to people who use them habitually, as prescribed or not, but theoretically within the law. Most of those people have jobs or contribute to society in some way (or at least wish they could, in the case of many chronically ill or disabled people). That could theoretically make them "high functioning addicts," but to me they're just dependent on something prescribed by their doctor. Being an "addict" is more psychological, and is kinda like Oliver Wendell Holmes' definition of pornography, "I know it when I see it."

As to the original post, more people than you'd think are on the streets because of non-drug-related mental illness or bad life circumstances. Of course, sometimes drug is one of those bad life circumstances, but I'd bet even when drugs are present they're often more correlation than causation to homelessness.
 
Yea the're allot more high functioning addicts than you might think but you just don't know they are addicts since they know how to hide it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top