Will we add another name to the homeless fallen list for this years Homeless Memorial Day? Or The Pain in the Recovery / Relapse Cycle of Alcoholism (or drug addictions)

The Pain in the Recovery / Relapse Cycle of Alcoholism (or drug addictions)

Last night in Savannah (12/10/10) after I had attended a gala work
potluck luncheon I felt all good inside about the opportunities that were created at that event for me & others there but then I came back to the real world.

It was with a slap in the face that I was brought back into the life
of a struggling Soul.

In a few short days (11 to be exact) we will be recognizing Homeless
Memorial Day. Right now I am just praying we don’t have another name
to add this year’s list of the fallen.

You see I could tell you the whole story but there is confidentiality
to consider. So I must generalize – I can’t use his name or give you
enough details to guess whom I am talking about for he has rights & I
have responsibilities to try to make sure that he & others like him
(or a her for that matter) have enough of their stories told to change
this system we hate so that we don’t lose another precious life to
this pain of recovery & relapse.

For this is not the first of these stories from just this year. We
have already lost the life of a homeless person on the streets this
year (2010) to this devil of alcohol.

Side note: this same situation exists for drug addictions & mental
health as well!

Are you outraged? Do you care?

I am & I do!!

When will it be enough?

I as an advocate for homeless can’t just sit by & do or say nothing
any longer!

People know the problem – they’ve seen it before – they’ve dealt with
it before – but it’s back – it never left!

You see I want you to have an image in your head tonight when you lay
your head on your nice warm pillow.

That image is of a young man walking up to a place he has been before
where he remembers a time when he had been on a road to recovery. It
is cold tonight (not quite as cold as it has been this week) & with impending
rain in the air. Imagine he has a thread of hope that this place will
once again be his home & that he remembers what it was like before to
be sober & be on the road to a better life.

But because he is obviously drunk & knows it, not denying he has once
again fallen (you see we know for a fact that he had gotten out of
Jail one time before after he had left here the first time & gotten
help for his problem since he was in his right mind, fully detoxed &
having had time in jail to plan for what he would do with his sober
freedom) but now faced with no options other than to go out on the
street again, possibly hoping that he gets picked up by the police again to go back through this cycle again.

Is that all we’re capable of as a society? Is that all we think we can do?

I know the answer is NO to both of these questions but for the people
& programs that are gearing up to do something let’s take a look at
this issue & proactively make sure we don’t add another young man or
woman to the list of the fallen homeless that we read every year at
our Homeless Memorial Day event!

Society often ignores these issues & hopes somebody will just make it
go away or not put the issue to them, that magic will keep it from
affecting them personally but now that it has slapped me in the face once again I must stand up on his behalf as his unbeknownst advocate & raise his voice for him.

What’s NEXT? Let’s get together & do “The Next Thing” that we are called to do as a caring part of society.

Get involved if it’s nothing more than to comment or Like this post – express yourselves – let it be known that we can take NO MORE of this loss of precious life.

Related Articles

• Seeking help with Homeless Memorial Day event (12/21/10): Anybody out there want to help memorialize our fallen homeless? (homelessnessinsavannah.wordpress.com)
• “No Wrong Door for Help”:Union Mission starting new counseling program for Savannah’s homeless | savannahnow.com (homelessnessinsavannah.wordpress.com)