Boy. Some ugly comments in this thread. A lot of posters so far come across to me (and, I would think, to most outside observers) as likely being arrogant and ignorant; coming from privileged backgrounds with healthy families, who were given plenty of opportunities to succeed, and simply don't care to try to understand how the other half lives.
I don't think a lot of people on this board understand what it's like to grow up in a household with an alcoholic (and usually absent) father and a heroin-addicted mother - parents who've kicked you out on the street when you were 14 or so, or who effectively got you involved in the drug world when you were a kid, or who sexually abused you. And I doubt most people posting here understand just how bad things can be when you find yourself unloved by anyone, alone, poor, and living in a situation where you can't see a way out. Some of the people you're criticizing deserve credit for at least one thing - they haven't committed suicide in circumstances where a lot of people would have done. A lot of the people you're describing have never been given any reason to hope for anything better in their lives, and it's a minor miracle they've held on to what they've got.
In fact, the number of people you're talking about who are homeless or poor because they have a mental illness is actually very small. The number of people who have a mental illness because they're homeless or poor on the other hand, is much larger.
There are, among this population, an exceptional sub-group who are, in fact, making a lifestyle choice. For them, I have no sympathy.
But seriously, the blanket statements... yeesh...
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