Beggars

[sugarpop]

Originally Posted by classicman

Dana - Only if and when an addict hits bottom, will there possibly be a change. I know this all too well, thank you. I lived the reality on both sides. "Helping" is preventing them from hitting bottom and thats all I was referring to. Giving food can be argued as doing the same thing in a sense. I'm just torn on this kinda issue. I wanna help, but I think sometimes I'm perpetuation the situation instead.

There are different bottoms though. I agree enabling is bad, which is why I rarely gave money, I usually gave food. I'm just saying, you never know what effect something will have on another person, and actually get them on the path to change. I know the situation as well, personally. I've been clean from drugs since 1989. I never lived on the street, but you know, it could have happened very easily. My bottom was pretty deep. But I wasn't on the street begging either. I always managed to keep a job, for the most part. When I didn't, I used men (boyfriends) to get what I wanted. I always had a place to stay. I moved half way around the world to get clean, because I couldn't do it here. Turned out I couldn't do it in Hawaii either. I ended up getting clean in LA, believe it or not.