I wrote this the first night without sleep: I'm now two and a half days without sleep.
Screwed Anew
Street Life Rule #
324 – Never Argue With Crazy People
An
d
when I say “crazy” I’m talking about the full blow hallucinating and fixated
schizophrenic type.
It’s like trying to have a discussion with a drunk – no good
will ever come of it. It’s best to avoid
them.
You might think he’s looking at you and talking to you, but in
his mind, he does not see you, and is not really talking to you. He sees and is talking to his hallucination,
of which you are only the anchor. At this point he has mixed his hallucination
with reality, and there is no rationalizing or reasoning with him. He doesn’t really see you or even hear you,
he only sees and hears his hallucination.
There’s a good chance he sees you
as a threat. and If he gets himself worked
up enough, he will react to thta threat he perceives within you. Of course, most of the time, if you just
ignore him,, his fixation on you will dissipate and his hallucination will
transform to another subject, , much like the subject matter of dreams shifting
from one random thing to the next. Sometimes that doesn’t happen and you should
be prepared for it.
At the corner of 9th and C St, where, for the past several
months i had been setting up my tent. By no means was this location ideal, but
it was better than any other place I had tried.
One of my neighbors who sleeps in the unused side doorway of the YWCA,
is one such schizophrenic – prone to having screaming fits in the middle of the
night, sometimes changing his voice to that of a female who screams rape. All of that doesn’t bother me, but lately he
has become more fixated on me personally.
He’s been making random comments
about me and my tent. He has become
increasingly irritated with me camping at that location.
Last night, as I neared my camping spot, I noticed his
silloette as he walked across the street to the side I was on. That was the first time I’d seen him move
from the spot where he sleeps – not a good sign. I could also hear him slapping his hands
together. It was not the sound of clapping
but more of the motion a person makes as they are threatening to punch
someone. Once on my side of the street,
he hide between cars in a parking lot, and after I passed by he reemerged and
began stalking me from behind. Each time
that I looked back at him, he was a bit closer. Never saying anything, he kept slapping
his hands together.
When I got to the spot where I set up the tent I looked over
to see he was still eyeballing me, now from just across the street. This was not a time for any cordialities. I needed to leave and quickly. I took the scissors from my pocket and kept
them in my hand as I continued to walk away, pushing my cart along as I
went. The slapping noise stopped when I
was a block away. Still I kept
walking. The only though I had at that
moment was, “where am I going to set up camp and sleep now?”
Eventually I made it to the 24 hour restroom facilities at
the civic center and took a piss. It was
about 12:30am. This area is popular
with many homeless because of the restrooms there - a number of homeless people
hang out around there, the majority of which are mentally ill, and hearing
voices types. They pace all night long
on the sidewalk. Sleep is not easy for
them to achieve either. I noticed that
there seemed to be more people here than usual.
Then I remember that someone recently asked me about the homeless
population downtown, if I’d notice any increase. I hadn’t really paid all that much attention
before, but from what I had seen recently, I’d say there was definitely an
increase in the population, but by how much I could not say.
A Couple Observations.
There are a lot more seriously mentally ill people living on the streets
in San Diego than Nashville, though pretty much on par with Las Vegas. Also the turn around rate for the homeless in
San Diego is much higher. In Nashville
you get to know the homeless for a while first, before they start
disappearing. In San Diego, every night
is a brand new batch of crazy homeless people.
Where they go after their first night I don’t know, but I rarely see
them a second time.