Post Homeless Depression

Hi @Cossack

I have experienced homelessness when I was 6 and 16 years old.

Due to that I have a long association with and empathy with homelessness.

I recently spent time with the rough sleepers in Martin Place Sydney and have been dissappointed in the Victorian Police commissioners public statements about the Melbourne CBD rough sleepers.

I too know the repeated conversations about suicide and attendance at the funerals of suicdes.

I have also experienced a weird sense of homelessness even though my name is on my mortgage and I have fair security about a roof over my head. But it seems the early experiences had a profound effect on me not being able to claim my right to a HOME .. even though it was legally mine.

I also have profound sensitivities to being rejected and excluded.

keep posting. We both know that it is about more than our own issues even if we can totally identify with the problems .. the problems are too rife .. to be just about ourselves.

I hold back from replying and wait and hope that others will reply, but I thought your post had waited long enough.

Today I was told I was eligible for NEAMI services, which is good, but I was also told it was a 12 month wait .. whats new .. I was ok with that too .. ... used to be last in the queue and long wait times.

Take care Apple

Hi @Cossack,

Welcome to the Forums and thanks so much for your post.

You raise such an interesting point about the adjustment to life back in the community after experiencing homelessness. I imagine (and I could be wrong) that there is somewhat of a collective assumption that once you have a roof over your head, everything is supposed to be “okay”. And in fact, this probably couldn’t be further from the truth! In your experience @Cossack, are the difficulties you’ve had with post homelessness depression mostly related to the grief of those difficult times – no stability, living in fear of violence, suicides, feeling outcast and look down upon by the public – or more around how homelessness has changed how you see the world? Or perhaps maybe a bit of both?

Thanks for your post @Appleblossom – it sounds like the experience of homelessness has also had quite a significant effect on your life as well. I wonder if any other users have had similar experiences and can continue the conversation?

Keep posting @Cossack – I think you have an important message to share.

All the best,
supernova.

@Appleblossom, I have heard of many others who have had tenure on properties such as rentals and become a crying mess when they are going to be late in paying the rent. The fear of losing, again, what has been gained is too often a story of post homelessness.

Hi @Cossack

Yes, I can imagine their sense of terror. Whenever a wound is profound it is very easy to "knock the scab" off the top and be deeply triggered again.

I hope your son and you are somewhere safe and have some sense of security.

There are also the issue that come with levels of density ... how much sharing needed can be stressors.

With my connection with the Martin Place people there were the stories of suicide, DHHS involvement, war involvement, physical disabilities and 2 deaths in the community on the one day... so confonting ... and NO they were NOT CATASTROPHISING. I had visited them in the evening and they were more upbeat, but the next morning they were subdued and their stories checked out later online.

I was undergoing healing, as I could talk naturally without censoring myself, and one person knew some of the institutions I had been in, and then another knew others .. so a sense of solidarity just happened, but it is also a part of my past.