What's the backstory you create for crazy or homeless people?

Before I got diagnosed as bipolar, I don’t think I really though much about the homeless, or beggars. Mostly I was annoyed or a little bit scared. I used to give some of them money, until I learned that that keeps them out on their own, where they can’t get services to help them.

I had known that an enormous portion of the homeless are bipolar, but I hadn’t thought much about it before I was diagnosed. Now, when I see a homeless person, even though my first reaction is like the old one, something else happens. I look at them, and I can identify with them. I might end up as one of them if I don’t take care of myself properly. There were even times that I wanted to be homeless.

Anyway, I can now look at them, and see how they behave, and I can know what is going on in their heads, and that makes me more empathetic. I believe I know what they are doing now. I believe I know how they got there.

When you see dishevelled looking people digging through the dumpster, or mumbling to themselves, or asking for money, do you even think they might have a backstory? If so, what is that story like?