Psychological Disorders and The Homeless:

Psychological disorders affect millions of individuals and families around the world, making them a very important problem facing our world today. But if psychological illnesses are such an important problem, why don’t we hear about then more often?  Why are most people completely uninformed on these disorders? We all hear news about Cancer, Heart Attacks, and other health related  problems, but how often do you hear mention of illnesses such as Schizophrenia, Dissociative Personality Disorder, or Bipolar? Unless you have a family member suffering from one of these illnesses, your answer would most likely be: never. After all, psychological disorders are not an everyday conversation topic. But why is this? The reason for the ignorance of today is the same reason that for ages mentally ill individuals were kept locked up in asylums or thrown out on the streets: psychosocial illness is ugly and frightening. The thing that makes them truly frightening and that separates them from other kinds of illness is that they do not have a strictly physical cause; the illness is not purely within the body but also within the mind. This aspect is also what makes treatment so difficult. Doctors cannot simply “cure” a psychological illness with an operation or a certain medicine; those afflicted with these illnesses take a great deal of time, attention, and therapy to recover.  Psychological illnesses are difficult enough just to talk about, let alone to experience firsthand, but  thousands of individuals in the United States alone experience these illnesses every day.

My own eyes were opened to the reality of mental illness after I recently attended an outreach to the homeless in my city.  This outreach was organized by a Church that meets every week specifically to minister to the homeless population. At the outreach a worship service was held and clothing was passed out to those in need. We also helped provide Thanksgiving dinner to those who would otherwise go without.  If you have ever wondered what place the mentally ill have in today’s society, the answer would most definitely be, on the streets.  Although not all homeless individual, suffer from mental disorders, a great majority of them do. From my own observations, out of the small percentage of my city’s homeless that attended the outreach, about one fourth of them suffered from some type of psychological disorder. Depression, Schizophrenia, and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder were a few illnesses present in the individuals who attended.  

My father, who also helped with the outreach, spoke to one man who had been on the streets for 6 months. This man told him about how he was once a worship pastor at a church and had lived a drastically different life.  My father asked him how he became homeless and he simply replied that he made friends with the wrong people and made some bad decisions. It is possible that this man is one of the many who have had their lives destroyed by a Substance-related Disorder. This psychological disorder is directly related to problems individuals face with drug dependence and abuse. Some might just simply refer to this disorder as lack of self control or overindulgence, but it is indeed a true illness and is often the result of an attempt at coping with another psychological illness. The man my father spoke with is an example of this. When my father offered him food, he refused it saying that his stomach could no longer handle real food. This was due to the fact that he drank nothing but Listerine (the mouth wash) and he said that is he ate real food his stomach would explode. He started drinking Listerine because of its alcoholic contents and he has come to believe that if he were to ever stop drinking it he would die. After hearing this story I realized that this man most likely suffers from OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder). This disorder is characterized by obsessions (unwanted thoughts or ideas you simply can’t help thinking) and Compulsions (irresistible urges to do things that are strange and illogical). It is heart breaking that he truly believes that his life would be in danger if he stopped drinking, when it is actually his consumption of the Listerine that could end up killing him. It is hard to imagine what this man experiences every day battling with these thoughts and urges.

               As the Outreach went on, several individuals stood out to me in particular as exhibiting abnormal behavior.  During the worship service, I noticed a man standing behind me. When I noticed him first he was talking loudly to another man, making passionate yet random comments about how Christian people should act, about God and the bible. I noticed him again later, while the minister was preaching. This time he was pacing back and forth behind me spouting random bible verses and talking to himself.  The behavior he exhibited made me suppose that he too, perhaps suffered from a psychological disorder. After considering his behavior and speech I came to conclude that he might suffer from a type of Schizophrenia.  Individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia experience distortion of reality. This distortion often leads to disturbances in their thought and speech processes as well as withdrawal from those close to them. Formal thought disorder is the official name for disturbances in which individuals can no longer think or speak logically. People who have this disorder quickly veer off topic when asked a question, speaking words that are seemingly nonsense but make perfect sense in their own minds.  Schizophrenia is a very serious disease and people who suffer from it have an extremely hard time leading regular lives. The man I noticed at the outreach is an example of many others like him, to whom every second of everyday is spend half in our world and half in a reality all their own.

The man my father spoke with and many others who attended the outreach exhibited a definite attitude of learned helplessness. You could tell just by looking into their faces that some of them had given up any hope of a better life, and that they had no intention of fighting the circumstances in which they now find themselves. After observing their behavior, I concluded that it is very possible that many of them suffer from major depression.  Major depression is a mood disorder that is characterized by extreme feelings of hopelessness, and discouragement. The intense emotions felt during depression affect every aspect of a person’s life. Individuals suffering from depression experience a decrease in their ability to concentrate, make decisions, and interact with others. These symptoms last for weeks, months and sometimes years. This disorder can cause healthy and successful people to deteriorate into hopeless, purposeless beings struggling to live from day to day

Throughout my recent study and observations of psychological disorders I have learned a great deal.  The most important thing I have learned is that before you label someone of as simply “crazy”, you must first stop and truly examine their behavior. Ask yourself why they act the way they do. Try to understand life from their point of view, and show empathy. It is possible that one whom you had once labeled “crazy” is actually suffering from a severe psychological disorder. It is important for us to realize that these illnesses are real, and that they are effecting real peoples lives.  Today’s world is plagued with countless problems, and it is easy to simple right off psychological disorders as unimportant. It is easy to remain oblivious to these illnesses that are so unpleasant and scary, but we should instead rise above our ignorance. We should endeavor to learn from the mistakes of our predecessors and to address psychological illness with the attention and care it deserves. 

Here is video that was made for the outreach I helped out with.