The first part left some people uneasy on here and I don't know if it's masochistic to try and post something personal on here again. But to clear my name or spark more debate about homelessness in SF, here is the second part to the story.
OP here. Thank you all for taking the time to read this and beginning some conversations, even if some are harder to read.
I plan on sharing more of the story in future writings. During this particular story, I was on the tail end of a state of a psychosis, which I didn’t know at the time. I just thought what I thought. Truth to be told, I took too many psychedelics in 2024 and one day I woke up, and started experiencing a bunch of delusions that ripped me away from reality.
I had spent the majority of my life living in New York, Vegas directly before San Francisco- I was in Grass Valley.
I arrived in SF last January and didn’t know anyone close enough to reach out to. Plus my delusions were beginning to pick up, dramatically.
I threw away my cash and IDs, got rid of every item I owned, and was paranoid that my phone was tracking me. So I voluntarily got rid of it.
I was navigating all this chapter without a phone.
I obviously got out of the situation. I’m not in jail. I did successfully defend myself, pro se, against the felonies. I eventually got a job. Which connected me with people. I started volunteering on art and back in the homeless shelters. I found more and more jobs. I found a home. I started researching psychosis to try to understand what happened to me.
This was an intense experience. And at this particular moment in time, as many people in here have picked up on- one of my survival mechanisms was believing I was the hero of my own journey. I was isolated. I was lonely. My delusions were based on video games, and books, and movies, and AI, and predictions about the future. Being homeless in San Francisco- where there’s people bent over on fentanyl and an AI sign everywhere, everyplace promoting AI is sort of surreal. Especially if you are in the middle of psychosis. Jail and homelessness will compound that more.
There are many good people trying to help in this situation. Some from the HSA, the old ladies and other volunteers making food at the homeless shelter, the other hurting souls, the DA involved in my case, a wonderful woman from the shelter in Redwood City. My family. My mom. My brother. I will share some of those good stories. And there’ll be more context- as to why it was the way it was.
I suppose anything that splits people is a good thing. And I appreciate the level of insight on both sides that people give in this thread.