Addictions
“Your violin has only two strings,” I say. “You’re missing the other two.”
It is here that the unlikely friendship begins between Mr. Lopez and Mr. Ayers. We hope you are enjoying The Soloist. We also trust that your previous discussions exploring the topics of joblessness, homelessness, and mental illness will continue and that your research will become more defined leading into the Town Hall Meeting on April 1st.
The Town Hall Meeting will allow you to discuss these and other related issues with your peers and MSU faulty and community members. Additionally, The Soloist’s inspiring story has been selected for the 2009 Freshman Summer Reading, and Steve Lopez will be MSU’s Fall 2009 Convocation speaker. Furthermore, the story of Nathaniel Ayers and Steve Lopez will be released as a movie on April 24th. To meet Mr. Lopez and Nathaniel Ayers, click the link below:
Alcohol and Drugs Take Their Toll by Stephanie Vischer
Substance abuse is prevalent among the homeless community. Alcoholism affects many homeless people and their families. In an article by Abby Simons, a son said about his homeless father that, “he had his struggles with alcohol just like people have their struggles with whatever it may be,” (Simons,1). Peoples’ struggles with drugs and/or alcohol can bring them down to the point of being homeless. This is not fair for the family of that person. “People who are homeless and chronically alcoholic have increased health problems, use of emergency services, and police contact, with a low likelihood of rehabilitation,” (Podymow, 1). These homeless people are at greater risk for dying earlier than a homeless person who is not an alcoholic. Something needs to be done about substance abuse.
There are many treatment centers that help homeless people with their addictions. Steven Lopez describes in his book, “The Soloist,” a treatment center called LAMP “tries to help its clients make social connections in a supportive setting, and also come up with a mission or a goal, along with a plan to realize it,” (Lopez 28). This is a very important thing for a homeless person to achieve because this is the first step to recovery. Sometimes it is a hard thing for homeless people to do. “Participants wanted to work and to be housed, yet felt trapped in a dehumanizing system,” (Daiski, 1). Homeless people are used to a free lifestyle and they feel that a treatment center that tries to help them will patronize them and have too many rules.
With treatment centers comes the need for money. The mayor in the book “The Soloist” donates fifty million dollars to housing and other developments on Skid Row (Lopez, 132). Donation is always a great thing to do but where does a mayor get fifty million dollars? Taxpayers usually end up paying for centers for the homeless. People have only two choices in order to help the homeless people, “either pay a treatment facility to treat them or keep hiring more police to ferry them back and forth to jail,” (DRUG AND ALCOHOL ABUSE…, 1). The only way to help stop substance abuse in homeless people is to put the money toward treating them instead of paying for more police officers.
Substance abuse is a huge problem and needs to be dealt with immediately. Homeless people already have the problem of being homeless, and they need to be able to deal with the other struggles that they have before the homeless issue can be dealt with. Youth need to be aware of the actions that can lead to being homeless, especially drug and alcohol addictions. Substance abuse will take its toll among the homeless community.
I still believe that a homeless person could change their life for the better if they really wanted to and tried to. I also still believe that America is not responsible to fix the problem, and that it doesn’t have the money to fix it.
I dont think that all homeless are drunkards or drug addicts, but many are and that is what puts them on the street. I have always had a negative view of the homeless after always seeing them on the side of the street and then looking in the paper and seeing a hundred jobs listed (this was about two years ago).
The only way to fix the homeless problem is not to help it directly by building housing for them or throwing money at it. The way to fix it is to build on the economy; with more jobs maybe more homeless won’t be homeless.
effie.orser Reply:
March 6th, 2009 at 2:31 pm
@taylor.mcdowell, It is responses like this one, which makes it clear that a lack of understanding of the addictive personality exists. It also shows the lack of tolerance for people who have not yet come to an understanding of their disease. This also applies to any disease that may have contributed to homelessness or joblessness. People have a lack of knowledge that diseases include physical, psychological, and addiction. None of these diseases is a choice. I do understand that it is difficult to help any individual that does not want help, but it is helpful to these individuals if the help is available to them. This does cost money.
To address building up the economy, providing jobs to individual that are working is fields such as doctors, psychologists, social workers, addiction counselors, and anyone else that works in fields that would be offering services to the homeless is putting money into the economy. For every homeless person that these services provide a more stable and productive life to is also putting money into the economy.
In the part of the Soloist when Steve Lopez gave the instruments to Nathaniel enraged me. How could Lopez willingly endanger Nathaniel by placing expensive instruments in his hands? The average cost of a cello is $3,000-5,000, and the average for a violin is roughly $1,000. A homeless man with such extravagant things is not going to be unnoticed. The streets of LA are very dangerous during the day, and even more so at night time. In a study, 30% of people incarcerated at San Francisco county jail were homeless and had a mental illness, and 78% of people were homeless, had a mental illness, and were substance abusers. [McNeil] This puts the violence and instability of the people Nathaniel is surrounded by in perspective. So was this act one of being ethically and morally wrong? Even if it wasn’t intended to be that way? It is a widely known fact that drug addicts would be willing to do horrifying things in order to get their next fix. For example 3 years ago there were reports of addicts leaving their crying children locked in a room for days without food or water. Nathaniel would be a perfect target for a couple of fixes.
Lopez did try to keep Nathaniel safe by trying to make him keep the instruments at Lamp. However, Lopez had already thought about the horrible things that could happen to Nathaniel if he got the instruments outside. In my opinion Lopez should have taken the instruments away when Nathaniel kept trying to sneak them out. He stood by and watched Nathaniel endanger himself, and did nothing but worry.
Lopez seems to really care about Nathaniel; however I believe he is pushing him too far too fast even if it is out of the good of his heart. The therapist in the story even said that Nathaniel would come around on his own time, not anybody else’s. I agree completely with this statement because you can’t help someone who isn’t willing to help themselves. When Lopez started to dig into Nathaniel’s past, he didn’t even think about how detrimental it could be to Nathaniel in his state of mind. To Lopez, Nathaniel starts off as being a good story, but then he becomes connected with him. But, I do not believe that he had any right to dig into his past in the first place. With Nathaniel being a paranoid schizophrenic Lopez should have learned more about his disease before his kept rummaging in his painful, and heart felt memories.
@stephanie.vischer
I agree with alcohol and drugs being a prevalent problem among the chronically homeless. Alcohol and drug addiction not only can bring a person to the point of homelessness, but will. Those with alcohol and drug problems do have a tendency to use emergency services more than average, thus leading them to less than average chance of recovery. Family members, friends, etc. who call emergency services on an inebriated person is only condoning the specific actions of a substance abuser, therefore saying, “it is okay you have an addiction problem, we will take care of you.” This type of action is also known as enabling. “Enabling is thought to comprise a wide gamut of actions that potentially reinforce continued use of alcohol or other drugs. More ambiguity surrounds the definition of codependency, but themes of caretaking, pleasing others, and association with a person who has alcohol or drug problems were found in one narrative study to be common conceptions of the term held by women married to alcoholics” (The American Journal of Family Therapy 257). Without enabling and by allowing a substance abuser to reach his or her significant “bottom,” then a person can begin a path to recovery.
“This is a very important thing for a homeless person to achieve because this is the first step to recovery” (Stephanie Vischer). I disagree with this quote for specific and personal experience reasons. I have been in jails and institutions because of my alcoholism, they have not helped me. The first step to recovery is, “we admitted we were powerless over “alcohol”- that our lives had become unmanageable” (Alcoholics Anonymous 59). Without working this step perfectly, self knowledge takes over. Meaning, when a true addict thinks that his/her self will to stay sober by oneself will be sufficient, or when ones “knowledge” about his/her disease takes over. Thinking I will not drink today, here is how. From personal experience, self knowledge does not work, I cannot stay sober by myself. I need help. Thus, leading us down a path of destruction and insanity. “The only way to help stop substance abuse in homeless people is to put the money toward treating them instead of paying for more police officers” (Stephanie Vischer). I understand to an extent where you are going with this, could you please be more thorough? Are you trying to say, put homeless addicts in treatment centers long enough to interrupt their addiction and be able to find the solution?
I agree the substance abuse problem in general needs to be taken care of, but do we really need to help the homeless with their addiction problems if they are not causing trouble or committing crimes? It is their prerogative to live on the streets, even if their addiction problem has led them there. Only if a homeless addict has a family to take care of, should he or she be shown the way to help; but who’s responsibility is it show the way to recovery? It has already been said, “how do you help the unwilling?” For example, “as the year turns over, room B-116 remains a shrine but does not become a home. Nathaniel sleeps in the tunnel. Skid Row is largely unchanged, and I begin to lose faith. In him. In Lamp. In myself” (Lopez 192). Steve forced the Lamp community upon Nathaniel, and he reluctantly refused. Nathaniel had no desire to live there, he was unwilling. Steve forced his will upon Nathaniel, therefore Nathaniel still sleeps in the tunnel.