Xmas

Housing First … Why is it that homeless people are not granted the same inalienable human rights as people with homes? Why is it that addiction disorders are viewed as inappropriate behavioral issues, when they are actually classified as mental health concerns? Why do so many condemn both homelessness and addiction rather than assist in finding resolve? Try building a public service building without it being wheelchair accessible or parking in a designated handicap space without a disability tag displayed. Call a knucklehead a retard or moron and end up in civil court. Really, how are we determining legal verses illegal, civil verses appalling? Seems many community decisions lately are quite irrational, or at best, not very well informed. We’d love to share more on this topic area, it’s our Jolly season though, maybe another time! 
 
What are some prime ingredients for triggering regression, like having to relive childhood trauma, now as young adults, victimized during their earlier days? Oppression comes to mind for us – that lack of freedom to choose where you sleep, eat, and excrete, for example. How you think, speak, and who is allowed to know the real you, once forbidden to share by your abuser, is another form of oppression that comes to mind. After some time and consideration, any sort of oppression can bring past trauma to the forefront of such a person’s current day and moment.
 
Oh my, maybe a shot of whiskey or heroin will make it go away! If you’ve been there and done that, welcome to the other side! Being enslaved by an addiction disorder, for some, may be more tolerable than being enslaved by past trauma, misinformation, stigma, and social pathology. Where is our natural right to be human, our constitutionally allowed pursuit of happiness, and to possibly taste a morsel of freedom? Our HADs, or even better, our national homeless addiction disorder crisis has nowhere to go. Research data is advocating "housing-first" as a viable option. The "how" of application is warranted! Lived personal experiences, within our network, have consistently proven that "housing-first" is instrumental in achieving sustained remission from opioid use disorders.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!