dysfunctional
Arcanist
- Oct 26, 2018
- 459
They're everywhere! I've exhausted all the public health resources available to me for mental health counseling. My option now...faith-based counseling. Yes, let's add another existential crisis to my plate. Thank you. Missionaries do the same thing. Would you like clean water? Food? Schools? Okay, we can do that if you sign away your cultural identity and convert to our one and only correct religion. So twisted!
Go wilin' with Walden ;)
https://books.google.com/books/abou...ver&source=kp_read_button#v=onepage&q&f=false
Kdawg2018
Still here...
- Nov 10, 2018
- 272
My van was very comfy, GMC Savanna, had interior fancy lighting, leather back row that layed flat as a bed, window coverings, rear doors had windows with air vents, and it had a tv in the middle row. You put your wardrobe suitcase in the front seat, or you can keep your stuff in a storage unit to switch out clothes. Wash laundry at coin wash. Keep drawstring laundry bag for dirty, plastic laundry bin for clean. Make sure you are in an area with 24hr fitness or other 24hr gym. You can take a swim and shower there. If you are working the gyms help as well to get ready for work. Eat out, or get a camp stove that is the single one on a tiny canister of fuel, get a pot to cook with that has a foldable handle. Canned soup is really easy to cook this way. Get free food at public services or churches. Public librarys are good places to park during day and use their computers, books, and they have clean toilets. You can meet a lot of people at the parks as well. The main area I met similar ppl were at the rest stops. Ppl in this lifestyle ususally had something like a dui that kept them from working or there were young families saving enough to move somewhere less expensive. One lady told me she showered at the local college locker room and no one asked for her ID or anything
What good fortunate to have reconnected with your Aunt. Thank you for sharing that with me. We share some afflictions. I understand how they just add insult to injury. I think I would prefer death to homelessness as well. I'm trying so hard to make it so it doesn't come down to that, but I'm running out of health and time. Things like money, family and friends are long gone. I don't know how I will put myself back together this time. I can't identify anything to even hold on to at this point.
In the states, we have so many of the same problems. And while I realize it could be much, much worse, suffering is relative to the individual imo. Once I became unable to produce profits, I became obsolete and now have spent nearly ten years feeling either enslaved, imprisoned or disposable.
That article and the visuals are intense. And then floating, flashing all around are ads for all the holiday loveliness. This is such a bizarre world.
The experience you're sharing here is invaluable. Thank you.
Throwawaysoul
Wizard
- May 14, 2018
- 606
OP should check out the van dwellers sub. Always having to use public toilets turns me off to van dwelling.
I have not read all the replies, but I am wondering if instead of becoming homeless you look into a "tiny" home community. I don't know where you live, but you could take the idea and DIY if not in a country with them. There are so many out there in the Western world, so it is not all hipsters in the US. Then you'd have a place to live for comfort. I do not think they have to be expensive to make/buy. They also DO have communities that do all sorts of things, like grow food and such. I do not know much about them but know they are becoming very popular since they cropped up a decade or so ago. It is better than being homeless and needing to go to shelters and get food and bathe and use the bathroom, and then there is always sickness and injury to deal with.
Edit to add: if you pay for it outright, then you own it for good. I do not know about the land it sits on and "rent" for that. But they may have communities that are self-sustaining so no one "works" past whatever they do in the community.
Edit to add: if you pay for it outright, then you own it for good. I do not know about the land it sits on and "rent" for that. But they may have communities that are self-sustaining so no one "works" past whatever they do in the community.
Some more things I want you to seriously take in mind, coming from personal experience. Having a bed in a safe, warm place is very important, as is access to food (that is safe to eat) and clean water.
Starvation is brutal. I know from nearly starving to death (from medical issues from pain) and from then trying to force the matter to just die and end it. You will want food. Even after months of not having it. You need to dehydrate to die unless you drop to about 12-13 BMI, and it is VERY difficult the last few days, and I caved after 2 mo of effort since I could sip water. It affects not just the throat and mouth but the whole body and can get gruesome at the very end. Having starved and dehydrated, it really messes up your body. You will be sick and weak all the time while starving and for months after--and I have not yet recovered, so I can't say if it is fully possible. You won't really be able to eat much of anything without vomiting even tiny bites of only bland food, and you will have violent stomach aches and GI issues when you do. Also, as a teen and in my 20s, I had fainting spells from hypoglycemia (blood sugar falling too low). If your body gets too hungry, you will be weak and possibly faint. I cracked my head and was out cold for a day in the hospital once, but I fainted often, and that is not pleasant either. Being homeless and having this problem would make it worse and put you in a vulnerable state.
Also, if you get injured, it will be even worse. I am literally bedridden and crippled from muscular-skeletal injuries from a masseuse tearing ligaments and tendons (among other medical errors). Someone beating you up could create the same injuries, and they will NEVER heal. Having that bed is the most important thing, and being protected from elements.
Also, not bathing (a real shower or bath), from personal experience of now having gone 7 mo without doing so (after trying to 1-2 times a month the first year) will create skin issues that will make it worse. I do not find sponge bathing to help. Only a real shower every few days would prevent it, ime. You will itch and smell and skin will turn brown, gray, and yellow and crust, and fall off in chunks. If you want to remove it, you need to soak it for 1/2 hour and then do so by hand with oil, and it takes 7 hrs for a body. Otherwise, you live like that.
Also, if you get sick, it can be brutal. I have been so sick, I was dying. I had a flu that turned to pneumonia for 3 mo. I almost choked on the mucus in the lungs and could barely get it up. I tore 3 muscles coughing. It was like knives stabbing me, and to this day, it is like that with every breath I take, or I feel like someone beat me with a bat in the rib cage. Again, having a bed and someone to lift me off it when I lost the use of those muscles entirely and could not move was important. Pneumonia would be a common thing to catch exposed to elements. It is not fun.
I don't mean to sound harsh, but what I went though with this alone was brutal, but I then went through worse and now am a full-bodied cripple who is very sick. I count myself lucky to have a roof over my head, a bed, and clean food and water. That is not the point here, just that I'd hate for you to set yourself up for something you don't see coming if there are better options available.
So look into any suggestions anyone else had first. Even living in a car is better, but hard to do w/o getting caught and told to move. Also, I hear it is hard to get out of being homeless once homeless b/c you'd need a phone at least to put on a job application, plus you need to look clean, and from experience, you will not look clean or healthy unless you are very lucky and don't encounter anything too bad.
Starvation is brutal. I know from nearly starving to death (from medical issues from pain) and from then trying to force the matter to just die and end it. You will want food. Even after months of not having it. You need to dehydrate to die unless you drop to about 12-13 BMI, and it is VERY difficult the last few days, and I caved after 2 mo of effort since I could sip water. It affects not just the throat and mouth but the whole body and can get gruesome at the very end. Having starved and dehydrated, it really messes up your body. You will be sick and weak all the time while starving and for months after--and I have not yet recovered, so I can't say if it is fully possible. You won't really be able to eat much of anything without vomiting even tiny bites of only bland food, and you will have violent stomach aches and GI issues when you do. Also, as a teen and in my 20s, I had fainting spells from hypoglycemia (blood sugar falling too low). If your body gets too hungry, you will be weak and possibly faint. I cracked my head and was out cold for a day in the hospital once, but I fainted often, and that is not pleasant either. Being homeless and having this problem would make it worse and put you in a vulnerable state.
Also, if you get injured, it will be even worse. I am literally bedridden and crippled from muscular-skeletal injuries from a masseuse tearing ligaments and tendons (among other medical errors). Someone beating you up could create the same injuries, and they will NEVER heal. Having that bed is the most important thing, and being protected from elements.
Also, not bathing (a real shower or bath), from personal experience of now having gone 7 mo without doing so (after trying to 1-2 times a month the first year) will create skin issues that will make it worse. I do not find sponge bathing to help. Only a real shower every few days would prevent it, ime. You will itch and smell and skin will turn brown, gray, and yellow and crust, and fall off in chunks. If you want to remove it, you need to soak it for 1/2 hour and then do so by hand with oil, and it takes 7 hrs for a body. Otherwise, you live like that.
Also, if you get sick, it can be brutal. I have been so sick, I was dying. I had a flu that turned to pneumonia for 3 mo. I almost choked on the mucus in the lungs and could barely get it up. I tore 3 muscles coughing. It was like knives stabbing me, and to this day, it is like that with every breath I take, or I feel like someone beat me with a bat in the rib cage. Again, having a bed and someone to lift me off it when I lost the use of those muscles entirely and could not move was important. Pneumonia would be a common thing to catch exposed to elements. It is not fun.
I don't mean to sound harsh, but what I went though with this alone was brutal, but I then went through worse and now am a full-bodied cripple who is very sick. I count myself lucky to have a roof over my head, a bed, and clean food and water. That is not the point here, just that I'd hate for you to set yourself up for something you don't see coming if there are better options available.
So look into any suggestions anyone else had first. Even living in a car is better, but hard to do w/o getting caught and told to move. Also, I hear it is hard to get out of being homeless once homeless b/c you'd need a phone at least to put on a job application, plus you need to look clean, and from experience, you will not look clean or healthy unless you are very lucky and don't encounter anything too bad.
