Not enough people are talking about this. There aren't enough resources available for folks to get the assistance they need. MANY are losing fights with ghosts. It's sad to watch. The reality is, they won't be able to find happiness without getting the treatment they desperately need. Most won't be able to do it alone. They need the people they care about to intervene.

Fortunately, there are some resources available. I would assist them with using their EAP. Nearly all employers offer an EAP in their benefits package. For most, EAP is available even if you don't participate in the health insurance plan of your employer. If you happen to be self employed, you can also use the EAP of anyone who has traditional employment in your house. This allows you to get an assessment by a qualified professional. If this qualified professional determines that you need inpatient care, you can use FMLA to take time off. The great thing about this is, you don't have to tell your employer why you are under the care of a doctor, and they can't terminate you for being away from work.

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Be well

GO BEARS!!!

Probably has the biggest body count in human history.

Ruins lives, destroys potential. I don’t think there’s a cure because addiction is such a catchall for a myriad of causes, but it’s devastating.

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I remember a short while back the discussion of an "X11" phone number (like 411, 911) but would be a suicide help line

It’s powerful and it kills. Everyone.

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Elections have consequences.

We shun these people, and they eventually end up on Lower Wacker after they've lost everything.

MANY believe that mental illness and addiction have a symbiotic relationship. If you find a solution for the mental illness, you usually take care of the addiction. Unfortunately, you'll likely get wait listed at an inpatient facility unless cops brought you in or you have a creative and convincing story.

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Be well

GO BEARS!!!

The suicide number is 988

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Be well

GO BEARS!!!

There are MANY with functional addictions that rob us all.

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How do you do Mrs Nas?


(RFDC, Peoria Matt, SHARK, and Mac might be the only ones who get this)

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Not enough people are talking about that time Randy Moss beat up that woman.

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Once more

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Be well

GO BEARS!!!

Ask july what it is. She tweeted it out a while ago

It all exploded after Democrats (and Trump) destroyed America over the common cold

Lmfao , vagina has killed more men that everything else in history combined times 10.

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the world will always the world. your entire existence is defined by your response.

Along with biological female mosquitoes. What are biological females good for?

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Be well

GO BEARS!!!

They don't call it a Venus fly trap for nothin you know what I'm sayin

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the world will always the world. your entire existence is defined by your response.

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

Why Earnest T. Bass?

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Elections have consequences.

I’m insulted as I’m probably the biggest fan on the board (and old enough to have watched episodes before cable).

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“Mr. Trump is unfit for our nation’s highest office.”- JD Vance
“My god, what an !diot.”- JD Vance tweet on Trump
“I’m a ‘Never Trump’ guy”- JD Vance

I think you nipped it in the bud.

I'm not sure this is true. Addiction IS the mental illness. You can be born with an addictive proclivity. Sometimes it is channeled into (societally) productive actions.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

Addiction is also a mental illness, but it is often connected with another mental illness. Treating that related illness may eliminate the addiction is what I've heard. It's a lifetime fight, though. That's why so many people repeatedly relapse.

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Be well

GO BEARS!!!

Did we ever figure out for sure if rich people could have mental illness or not? Like, as soon as you start to feel some mental illness coming on just buy something and it is gone.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

They laugh at poor people and feel better.

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Be well

GO BEARS!!!

One of big problems with drug addiction is the refusal of the addicted to accept the reality of what is required to GET OFF THE DRUGS AND TO CHANGE THE BEHAVIOR REQUIRED TO REJOIN CIVILIZED SOCIETY. Truth of things is that the great majority of the people who are filling up the sidewalks and parks in this country WANT to be there accepting their life and shooting their drugs. These are NOT "poor" homeless people who have gotten kicked out onto the street and forced out onto the street for the most part.

What this means is that the government has a decision to make and it is unlikely that the decision will be popular with the radical minions in the DemonRAT ranks because it would involve forcing the addicts to get clean and get jobs. This is clearly not in the left's playbook of continually accepting and fostering the drug culture of this country and enabling addiction and feeding the monsters thqt they created.

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An Ode to the Texas man who shot an Antifa terrorist:

Oh, he might have went on livin'
But he made one fatal slip
When he tried to match the Ranger
With the big iron on his hip

I apolojai.

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Do you think they grew up with the goal of being homeless that look like zombies with their only coping mechanism being the cheapest and most dangerous drugs available or this is something they decided after college that they wanted that life?

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Only ignorant people would think that. MANY addicts would give anything to overcome their addiction.

_________________
Be well

GO BEARS!!!

Many do. And it takes a helluva lot longer than 28 days. There's no shortcuts. There's only one reason for a person to get clean and it isn't guilt or redemption or love. It's deciding they don't want to die. So there are also many addicts who would NOT give anything to overcome their addiction, because death isn't a consequence, it's just the end of the journey.

Treat addicts and mentally ill patients every shift at work.

The issue is complex and unique because humans are complex and unique, but after working with these populations for over a decade there are a few things you notice.

People that abuse drugs do not tend to live long healthy lives and will appear as we say, "older than their stated age", it's fun when your young, but you destroy yourself and your cardiovascular system and brain are stressed frequently, which ages you at a much more rapid rate.

Wealthy people are able to pay for better care, so they will outwardly appear to have it together, but they rapidly will go into withdrawal, they of course, do not admit to abusing substances like a homeless guy, but the symptoms betray them.

Homelessness is way more complex than the simple and convenient fables you hear from politicians. There is in fact a significant portion of the local homeless population that is homeless purely by choice, they simply do not want to adhere to any rules or regulations, they have a hidden, but sizable group of likeminded people they are happy to live amongst, the culture has its own rules and seasons, these folks have not interest in rejoining any recognized society.

Addicts are also complex, there are people that have suffered unimaginable traumas who cannot get by without chemical support, but there are also people that simply know or fit into any other peer group, once you get into the scene it is hard to get out, you've spend years using and your entire peer group uses, your really not employable, so you just keep doing what you are doing. Addicts have to want to stop and seek treatment, most of the people I encounter that beat addiction have a reason beyond themselves to stop, usually for their kids.

Minorities suffer more because they come from a culture that does not trust the medical establishment and due to the almost epidemic level of diabetes and hypertension that exists in minority populations, especially African Americans, this is well known, but nobody talks about it, or seems to have any interest in addressing it, saw the manifestations during COVID and I talked about it then, but do not see any effort to address this issue.