Sometimes homeless addicts just wanna be homeless addicts

American Thinker ^ | 02/02/2018 | Ethel C. Fenig

[SeekAndFind]

Among President Donald J. Trump's (R) inspiring guests at his State of the Union address was Albuquerque Police Officer Ryan Holets and his wife Rebecca, who adopted a little girl they, significantly, named Hope.  While on duty Holets encountered a pregnant, heroin addicted woman, Crystal Champ, about to shoot up. Imploring her not to shoot up while pregnant he offered to adopt the baby.  He then worked with Champ and her partner, presumably the father, to get her into rehab but, as CNN reported last month, it was rough going.  

After their story was reported, a number of substance abuse treatment centers offered to help Champ and Key. Holets, who received a city award for his actions, has tried to convince them to take advantage of this opportunity to get the help they need.

This week, CNN found Champ and Key living with a friend in a ramshackle RV park and explained how a number of treatment centers had offered to help her get into a rehab program.

But the grip of heroin is so fierce that she has struggled to accept the offer.

"I really don't have a desire to get clean, and that sucks, because I really want to," she said. After a long pause, she added, "but I don't."

Champ said she knows how difficult it is to get clean. A rehab program worked once before, but a year later she relapsed, which led to her current life, homeless for two years.

"I'm scared I'll get clean and not find the comfort that I find in my life like this," she said.

Let's repeat that: "I really don't have a desire to get clean, and that sucks,

[SeekAndFind]

“I’m scared I’ll get clean and not find the comfort that I find in my life like this,” she said.

These honest remarks reveal the complexity of self destructive behavior and the difficulty of rehabbing. It also shows how hard it is for an individual to abstain for the long term from this behavior and engage in more constructive habits and actions.

[jobim]

In Hawaii, I have seen this as a certainty - they like it just where they are.

[txrefugee]

Nice try, CNN. Obviously, they were out checking on everyone that President Trump had mentioned in his terrific speech, and it appears they were all legitimate, unlike the ringers that Obama would highlight who were later found to be Democrat activists.

[Axenolith]

The “inner defeatist” at work. One can’t cross a personal barrier or reach a goal, or maintain/hold a gain, unless at heart you believe you really deserve the results.

[trebb]

Yep - 29+ years clean and sober and have dealt with a lot of alcoholics and addicts. Once one is hooked, it is hard and scary to get clean because one tends to remember the "relief" the substances gave them and forget the grief - even when the last "good time" was years before, they will remember it more than the humiliation and self-loathing.

Hell even after living the good life for so long, there are times when my mind tells me that this particular situation would be easier if I could just get that initial feeling again - fortunately reality tells me that the feeling is what hooked me in the first place. AA has a better recovery rate than any other and it is less than 15% for long-term recovery.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

Reminds me of alcoholics I have known. One said to me one time...”I just want to stay drunk till I die!”

He is now dead. Heart attack in a bar.

[Hambone 1934]

Same with any addiction...Drugs,booze,food or gambling...knew a woman who had been clean for 30years ,was caregiving elderly parents,working and doing well in life..She was told by doctors she had cancer,less than 6 months...She got a bottle of booze,drank,drove on the wrong side of highway and killed herself...Luckily no one else was hurt...

Even after all those years sober,she reached for the bottle when life hit her really hard....

[trebb]

I’ve seen folks with decades of sobriety go out because a flat tire happened at an awkward moment - there is recovery but no cure - relapse can be triggered by any number of things if one doesn’t stop to consider. As one, now in Heaven, old timer would say, Sobriety requires eternal vigilance...

[JimRed]

The relapse is a CHOICE. It’s not like she was held down and the needle forced into her arm. Drug abuse is a BEHAVIOR, not an illness. It should be treated as such. If that means forced rehab, prison camps until clean or just benign neglect and letting them kill themselves, so be it.

[Terry Mross]

A man by the name of Clancy Immustrum (so?) Worked on skid row for decades. He always said that most homeless people want to stay homeless.

[JimRed]

...there is recovery but no cure - relapse can be triggered by any number of things if one doesn’t stop to consider.

Relapse requires a series of decisions and actions. They DECIDE to go back to the crap; they earn, find or steal the money needed to buy it; they contact a supplier and buy it; they inject, snort or smoke it.

[ShadowAce]

Not necessarily.

I was physically addicted to caffeine for several years. Every time I tried to stop, I'd get MASSIVE headaches--crippling, painful, headaches that incapacitated me. One can of soda, and I'd be fine again.

What saved me was my motorcycle accident, and the four days I spent in the hospital with a morphine drip. The morphine suppressed the painful headaches.

I'm no longer addicted, but I understand the addiction.

[i_robot73]

>
The relapse is a CHOICE. It’s not like she was held down and the needle forced into her arm. Drug abuse is a BEHAVIOR, not an illness. It should be treated as such. If that means forced rehab, prison camps until clean or just benign neglect and letting them kill themselves, so be it.
>

Sorry, but is this not the forum where peeps scream of ‘social engineering’ (aka changing behavior) via the tax code??

What do you propose, a Nanny State to ENSURE the relapse ‘never’ occurs? There has yet to be ONE that has pointed to a place\time in History that had utopia of no homeless, no addicts, no...

But, should be restore govt to its rightful size/scope, return to the edicts of PERSONAL responsibility (not ‘charity’ through theft by govt), we will most likely find a reduction of said problem(s).

[se_ohio_buckwye]

The thing is. Shes going to be dead soon. Am I heartless not to feel too bad about that when there is a child in the hospital down the road with cancer who would just like to see spring and probably wont.

[G Larry]

My brother, who was a successful IT exec, has spent much of the last 12 years on the streets, addicted to crack.

He cleans up for 6 and 12 month periods and then falls back in the ditch.

He is emphatic that 100% of those on the streets begging are addicts.
The ‘mental illness’ element is secondary.

[AppyPappy]

Many smokers are like that. I know I was.

[GailA]

My ‘baby’ brother had been sober 1 yr when he dropped dead of a heart attack last March. It catches up with your body at some point.

[T-Bird45]

A friend of mine had a similar experience to yours with smokeless tobacco/snuff being his addiction. His injury was a crushed ankle/tibia/fibula in a climbing accident. The injury required serious surgery using an Ilizaroff cage to hold the various parts in alignment for natural healing. The morphine suppressed his nicotine withdrawal.

[SeekAndFind]

RE: My brother, who was a successful IT exec, has spent much of the last 12 years on the streets, addicted to crack.

I’m shaking my head reading this!! A successful executive gets addicted to crack!! WHY??

Don’t tell me he went homeless....