John is a lovely man. Most people probably just judge him at a distance without ever knowing his heartbreaking backstory.<\/p>\n
While walking down the street in Great Falls, Montana, I happened to see a man across the street who I thought may be homeless. I just wasn’t sure. Most homeless people you’d never know they are homeless, and in rural communities, it can even harder to determine if a person is homeless.<\/p>\n
It was the backpack that seemed out of place for a housed person. Normal adults can buy any backpack they want probably would not have a bright orange children’s backpack. For a homeless person, anything that will carry belonging works.<\/p>\n
I crossed the street and asked my new friend if he wanted socks. John and I started to talk. He really liked the name Invisible People, and he started telling me his compelling story of surviving abuse and mental illness.<\/p>\n
As a rule, we never feature homeless people with severe mental illness. Not because of any legal issues but because I respect people. If a person is not of right mind having a psychotic episode of some kind, they should not be on YouTube. Because of how mental illness affects homelessness is such an important topic, it’s a conversation that needs to be shared. If the person is high-functioning and fully aware of Invisible People’s work and being on YouTube, then they can make a conscious decision.<\/p>\n
John’s mother tried to drown him before he was five-years-old. John’s grandparents then took him. His grandfather severely beat John until he was 14 when he decided to leave. John has been in and out of homelessness and institutions ever since.<\/p>\n
John suffers from panic attacks, PTSD, and what he describes as multiple personality disorder. Do survive the beatings, John developed what he calls “alternates” which was his defense mechanism as a child.<\/p>\n
My heart breaks for John but I am grateful he had the courage to share his story. Most people just look at the homeless person as a drug addict without ever considering that drugs and alcohol may be a way of coping with childhood trauma.<\/p>\n
I have interviewed close to a thousand homeless people. This is the first time anyone has broken down when I asked if they had three wishes. I know some people recently have been critical of me asking that question. To be candid, I almost didn’t post this video because I didn’t want to deal with the drama, but John’s story is important. People need to hear the truth about homelessness and mental illness.<\/p>\n
The three wishes question is important because it helps humanize homelessness. No one either homeless or housed has had a problem with it except every now and then someone comments they don’t like it. I am highly empathetic. I can literally feel other peoples pain. This interview with John has taught me that I do need to be more sensitive, and in interviews like this, I will stop asking the three wishes question.<\/p>\n
Just so you know, I do a lot behind the scenes before and after interviews. Many of the homeless people connect with me online or in our support group. I did not just leave John on the street. We hung out for some time after I stopped recording. I wanted to make sure he was OK. I walked with John as he headed to the Salvation Army to get food. John is a good man who had a rough childhood. It’s not his fault that he is homeless but it’s our fault that he has lived his adult life in and out of the system!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":12221,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[254,10214,681],"tags":[8385,7444,463,10219,725,10216,253,10217,998,948,832,10220,515,508,874,10215,507,1178,747,856,10221,10218,6881],"coauthors":[8319],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-537697-2997182.cloudwaysapps.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/videos\/12153"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-537697-2997182.cloudwaysapps.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/videos"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-537697-2997182.cloudwaysapps.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/videos"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-537697-2997182.cloudwaysapps.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-537697-2997182.cloudwaysapps.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12153"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-537697-2997182.cloudwaysapps.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-537697-2997182.cloudwaysapps.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-537697-2997182.cloudwaysapps.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-537697-2997182.cloudwaysapps.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12153"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress-537697-2997182.cloudwaysapps.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=12153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}