Thanks! That's certainly one of the confounding factors I had in mind when I was writing this. The same goes for traveling to and fro meetings. This is especially painful for hardworking yet poor mentally ill and unskilled workers trying to get their life together. Overcoming mental illness, childhood abuse, medical issues, witnessing or being a victim of a crime, and bettering oneself, oftentimes several of these at once, is a Herculean feat. Asking for help does not mean someone is lesser. In fact, by not helping someone in need they're less likely to ask for help before they do something permanent. For some all this work proves too difficult. For so many reasons.

Most Americans are scraping by with medical, addiction, or mental issues on top of being underpaid, under educated, overworked, and priced out of necessary services like mental/health/child care, housing, and transportation.

It's no wonder so many articles and studies bemoan the current state of affairs.