Mental Health, Homelessness & Misconceptions.

Love & Family Do Not ‘Solve’ Mental Health Issues.

My family and I have been navigating the journey of supporting a loved one with mental illness for well over a decade. Over the years, we have heard many well-intentioned but ultimately unhelpful comments. Such statements often reflect a lack of understanding and can be unintentionally hurtful.

• “Why don’t they just get help?”

• “Why don’t you help your (insert family member)?”

• “Why can’t you just take them in?”

• “Why don’t they go to a shelter?”

· “Why don’t they just get a job?”

• “They seem normal or coherent.” Those suffering can & do have moments of coherence & normalcy. The measure for mental illness requires far more than ‘small moments’ that some may capture or witness

• “They are intelligent”. Assuming that mental illness means a person is not intelligent is ignorant. It’s the same thing as a person assuming you are not intelligent when you’re on vacation in another country and cannot speak the language.

None of these factors alone solves mental health issues:

• Love

• Family

• Shelters

• Police Intervention

• Mental Health Facility

• Medicine

• Money

• Kindness

• Patience

• Positivity

• Prayer

Mental Health & Homelessness. Yes, it can happen to you

Sometimes, all it takes is a single traumatic experience to permanently alter someone’s mental state. Regardless of background, age, how functional or loving your family is, how careful you are, etc. Many aspects of life can lead to lasting cognitive or emotional challenges. Mental illness can be triggered by countless factors, and genetics is not the biggest cause; the factors you see below are:

· Stressful life events, trauma, PTSD, abuse

· A fall, fight, assault, accident, stroke: Anything leading to a TBI- Traumatic Brain Injury

· Environmental influences

· Personality traits or developmental conditions

· Brain chemistry imbalances

· Alcohol or drugs (synthetics or laced substances)

· Genetics and family history

· Prenatal or Birth Trauma: Being stuck in the birth canal. While forceps can be a safe tool when used correctly, complications like brain or nerve damage can occur, potentially leading to developmental delays, cognitive impairments, and emotional or behavioral challenges in the child.

Traumatic experiences and head Injuries can disrupt the delicate balance of neurotransmitters (brain chemicals) that play a crucial role in mood and mental well-being, and can lead to things like:

• Depression

• Anxiety

• Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

• Bipolar disorder

• Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)

• Schizophrenia,

• Dementia

• Alzheimer’s

• Other issues such as anger, mood swings, substance abuse, and behavioral problems

The Reality of Mental Illness

Here’s something crucial: Mental illness doesn’t just “appear” overnight. It often begins subtly, with gradual shifts in personality, unusual behaviors, or changes in social interaction. Then it escalates. Patterns begin. Intensity grows. In the process, reality can easily intertwine with a distorted perception.

Many of the systems meant to help people can easily end up retraumatizing a vulnerable population. This is why you hear horrible stories of abuse in places like elderly/retirement homes and Mental health facilities.

If you’ve never had to navigate the maze of police intervention, legalities, psychiatric care, homelessness, or trauma, it can be hard to understand.

The truth is: People and Brains are complex. Life is complex. The ‘System’ set up for mental health is complex. You can’t look at someone’s homelessness or mental health state and say, “Well, I would never let that happen.” You don’t know what you’d do if it were your child, sibling, or parent. Because this doesn’t just happen to “them.” It can happen to you. To anyone.

Mental Illness + Homelessness: A Common Combination

Some of these mental health systems only offer help if someone meets a very specific -and often unrealistic- set of criteria. If they don’t meet that, they don’t get treatment. And that’s why you see so many people on the streets. Mental Health programs often only compute two categories: ‘willing to get help’ and ‘Suicide or harm to others’

Many mental health conditions come with a lack of insight, known as anosognosia, which means the person literally doesn’t believe they’re sick. Their brain tells them: Don’t trust anyone. Don’t get help.

Mental illness and homelessness are not personal failings.

The issues that remain regarding mental illness are systemic; they are medical, and we need better infrastructure for care. We need more thoughtfulness, willingness to learn, more advocating, and more compassion.

Shelters alone are not necessarily helpful in treating an individual’s unique case. Most shelters have a mixed population. Many mentally ill and homeless people are fragile and vulnerable, and more often taken advantage of and abused than the other way around.

People lump “homeless” into one big, general category instead of seeing individual human beings with unique contributing factors. Disorders like schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, PTSD, and others often come with comorbidities (When two or more medical conditions exist).

One condition worsens the symptoms of another. And treatment is not “one size fits all.” It can take months or years to find the right therapy, the right medication, the right dosage. And you can’t do any of that if the person is terrified, untrusting, or living on the streets.

Stop with the Performative Help

This is the act of appearing to offer aid or support without providing genuine assistance, with the primary goal of improving one’s own image, social capital, or reputation, rather than addressing the actual needs of the person or cause being supported. It involves actions that are superficial or symbolic and lack tangible impact, such as posting on social media without taking real-world action.

This is harmful and unproductive.

There is no need to “talk the talk” and not be prepared to “walk the walk” by taking significant and impactful actions. Let’s normalize educating ourselves, offering empathy, or support, rather than incorrectly judging others or jumping to inaccurate conclusions.