The "cure" for the "dis-ease" was that you started to make better, more responsible choices. Congrats to you to grab the bull by the horns. To make a change for the better destroys the excuses of victimhood for many of the homeless. I have seen the same folks for years continuing to make the same decisions. It becomes a lifestyle. No rules or boundaries, and as soon as any commitment is expected they will disappear. No show. You got tired of living like a dog and always in danger of getting your head bashed in with a rock. I've seen this stuff-i have realized the same faces show up year after year after year. They are not near helpless and deranged as people think. Instead very very savvy and good at getting what they want. More freebies=more homeless. The more enabling, the longer folks will CHOOSE to remain pan handlers, drug abusers, etc. As was said earlier, welcome to a whole nation like this if the left ever gets the upper hand to do it. You are an overcomer. It is not a disease, it is often willfulness and rebellion. "My rules, my way." What you hang around you become. You got out of that-the odds were against you, but once again, you did do the right thing in spite of the challenges and the enablers who are invested in perpetuating homelessness. It makes them feel better/superior/virtuous. When we go out and find homeless folks, we will talk with them, give them a snack, pray with them if they want that (no compulsion), and most of all encourage them that there is a better way-then we leave it at that. Treat people like people there is a tiny chance, but it is still there, that they will get tired of living like an animal. It aint no good life for anybody.