Hacker News Reader

Comment by lolc | Hacker News Reader

> to drive out the homeless

How nice of you to think of the homeless too. Where do you want to drive them to?

Actually I think that substance abuse (cigs, alcohol, heroin, etc.) is the reason why many of them are homeless to begin with. The right thing to do for them would be to medically cure their addiction, thereby making them capable of helping themselves. This is hard to accept for those who don't know how to cheaply and sustainably treat addictions.

Not just addiction, a significant chunk of homeless prople have a mental illness that isn’t been addressed.

Given the way healthcare works in America (or doesn’t as the case may be) I’m curious how that could be addressed.

Mental illness exists mostly due to controllable factors. Those who don't know of or understand these factors consider it a mystery that requires medical management. Medical management is legitimately required due to evidence of genetic or structural damage only. It is quite overused otherwise.

Here are many of the somewhat avoidable factors that result in mental illnesses: (1) insufficient sleep (2) insufficient physical activity (3) serious infections (4) excessive stress (5) high BP (6) high bad cholesterol (7) insufficient omega-3s (8) unhealthy processed food intake and/or SAD diet (9) vitamin and mineral insufficiencies (10) side effects of prescription drugs, not limited to PPIs and anticholinergics (11) narcotic use or abuse

If you fix the above lifestyle factors, there would be far fewer cases of "mental illness".

Reply on news.ycombinator.com