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7:40am July 20, 2015

fullyarticulatedgoldskeleton:

madeofpatterns:

fullyarticulatedgoldskeleton
replied to your post
“To the extent that reinforcement is a legitimate consideration in how…”
When I was reading this my first thought was all the programs for homeless people that stop just short of giving real help because they’re afraid of ‘enabling dependency,’ before I kept reading.

Yes. Agreed. That’s an example of what I’m talking about. 

They’re worried about positively reinforcing dependency by being too nice, but they’re not *at all* worried about the constant negative reinforcement of having no reliable access to housing or food.

Yeah. My entire treatment plan was based on me changing my “behaviors” so that I could “get better.” I didn’t end up in that program for treatment, I ended up there because I was homeless and it was the only way I could get housing support of any kind.

Even people for whom recovery is possible, won’t recover if they’re constantly dealing with life-threatening situations and neverending stress. But the threats, and the stress, were invisible to staff. They didn’t acknowledge it at all.

Treating me like first I had to stop being mentally ill before I was allowed to want my basic survival needs met was just so ass backwards and traumatic to deal with.