Suicidal and depressed 55 yr old ex radio announcer homeless

70 points by isareed900 ↗ HN
Terry Foxx 55 yr old ex radio announcer homeless, Don't have a pot to pee in or a window to throw it out of. everyone seems to think people with mental illness are crazy. We're not crazy, we're just trying to stop us from thinking we are.being depressed & thinking about suicide everyday. Hearing a voice that tell me I belong on another planet,where you receive compassion and care,Tired of being call a bum, old fart or your days are numbered.I've just had enough feeling my time is up.nobody cares about second chance or the homeless, I don't wanna tragic death, I prefer taking sleeping pills and just never wake up.the world would be a better place without me. Ps Living in a world where there are more animals shelter than homeless shelter. hopfully he can get help before and not afterwards

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(comment deleted)
31 vacant homes for every 1 homeless person in the US. i think the problem is slightly more complex.
Do you have some source for this?
That was from December 2019:[1]

> Based on currently available numbers, there are about 31 vacant housing units for every homeless person in the U.S.

The most recent numbers are 15,185,000 vacant housing units (Q3 2021)[2] and 580,466 homeless people (January 2020),[3] which makes the current ratio 26.2 vacant housing units per homeless person in the U.S.

If you want to go by year-round vacant housing units, that number drops to 11,671,000, and the ratio becomes 20.1. For year-round vacant housing units held off-market, it's 7,008,000 and 12.1.

Though the numbers are different, it's pretty clear that there are many times more vacant homes than homeless people in the U.S.

[1] https://checkyourfact.com/2019/12/24/fact-check-633000-homel...

[2] https://www.census.gov/housing/hvs/files/currenthvspress.pdf (PDF, page 5)

[3] https://endhomelessness.org/homelessness-in-america/homeless...

Honestly, the actual "housing" is not the biggest issue. It happened to me too and I wasn't a drinker, druggie or anything like. It is sometimes just a real s*itstorm of bad luck that snowballs. And yes, most of the time it gets magnified if you are an introvert...with no network.

If you are already on the edge any little thing can tip you over and in this country, the rules about needing a mailing address, phone number etc can really slow down the recovery process. I spent a month with a family member I despise, then got a job with room/board included and then moved out of state. Sometimes starting over requires big moves. I had to eat a massive dead crow...but in the end I suppose it was worth it.

Hey man, life's gonna turn a corner. You just need to talk to the right person. Here's a great number to call: 800-273-8255

I know I'm just some random person on the internet, but that's at least 1 person that thinks you have value :)

I can't recommend this highly enough. Theres a conversation that can change your life for the better. No judgement, nothing to own up to or admit. Its the simplest thing once you press those buttons and say hello.

Do yourself a favour and use your voice for what it has been good at - talking to people. Give them a call. It really does get better.

(comment deleted)
being homeless is really tough.

catch up with old friends and family if you can.

start small. do something to improve your life every day. don’t let upsets keep you down.

make goals. small goals.

Lisa Reed posted the same history about Terry Campbell six years ago asking for a crowdfunding. It seems that we lack some information here to understand correctly the situation, and/or that he has been a homeless for a long time, sadly.
Man, I know this feeling... I don't know anything about you, but I don't think most people really understand the intensity of people who have the character to end up homeless or just in situations like this generally. Everyone I know who's been in a place like you tends to have a heighten experience of the world. Lows are cripplingly low and highs tend (where they exist) tend to be euphoric. People also used to try to convince me that I was wrong to feel the way I did, but I don't think I was wrong, I just experience things differently to others. I find it more odd how normal people are. Why would you not want to get addicted to drugs or alcohol? Why would you accept a normal life? Why wouldn't you want to die if you're not offering value to the world? I need to have intensity in one way or another or I don't want anything -- I would prefer to die. The fact you were a radio announcer suggests to me you might be similar because you're clearly not stupid or socially maladjusted, which in my experience is the other category of people who find themselves in a position like you.

At my lowest I was trying to drink myself to death. I wasn't quite homeless thanks to the support of family and friends, but weeks away if I didn't make changes. It took me a couple of years to pull myself out of that... You said something I relate to and still struggle with to some extent, "the world would be a better place without me". At my lowest I said this to myself constantly. I hurt so many people and offered so little value to the world that I knew objectively the world was better off without me. Those who told me I had value were clearly lying, although looking back I guess it was a nice lie they were trying to convince me of... If you're like me I think maybe the first step to get better is to ask yourself how you can bring some value to the world again? This can be as simple as feeding squirrels in the park or picking up litter from the streets, but you first need to give yourself purpose and a justification for living. If you can remove that thought telling you, "the world would be a better place without me" you'll find it's much easier to break any destructive cycles you may currently be in..

From there it's really just about taking small steps every day... Talking never helped me, but I'd be happy to talk more about your personal situation especially if there's something stopping you from finding a purpose and building your life back up. I know for some people there can be other factors at play which make recovery impossible. It's been 5 years now since my recovery and these days I'm quite content. It might also worth noting that I went from having practically nothing to being what most people would consider very wealthy in that 5 years. I'm saying this because if you told me this would have happened 5 years ago I would have put the probability of this being true at less than 0.01%. I'm not religious, but I do sometimes wonder if someone noticed that I'm trying to be better... Either way what matters is that things can improve.

If you want to talk, kypro2 [at]protonmail.com. If not, I really hope you figure things out.

If you're interested I found my post from 5 years ago btw, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13146741 I was drinking heavily at this point and I think the week before I wrote this my parents had to call an ambulance after they found me passed out in my house after drinking a couple of bottles of vodka... Things got far worse after this though. My girlfriend of several years left me some time in January and I became too depressed and wrapped up in self-hate to care to keep looking for a job. I just wanted it all to end.

it’s wild to think but a large amount of people who are homeless are actually anxiety ridden introverts that have very little connections to people who can help them out.

it would be one thing if we all started out on the same foot but we don’t, some things in life are just easier because of your circumstances.

a lot of people seem to not want to realize their own privilege. which is fine but when it comes to judging others we really cannot use the same scale because we all start out off different.

even two siblings can start out different enough where one has a bad leg up in society and the other doesn’t. mental health plays a large role in all of this.