Homeless drunks in Thailand

Westerners ending up homeless on the streets of Thailand probably sounds a bit absurd. After all, Thailand has a lot of poverty of its own so how could someone from the rich west end up begging on the streets of Bangkok or one of the other Thai cities. The sad thing is that it does happen and the usual cause is addiction.

There can be an extremely negative view of these homeless people among the ex-pat community in Thailand. There seems to be a rush to dehumanise these people and see them as completely at fault for their predicament. The logic is that people like this should not be allowed to enter the country in the first place. Thai people appear far more understanding, but have too many of their own worthy cases that require their attention.

I was never homeless in Thailand, but I did end up on the streets in my twenties. Alcohol completely destroyed my ability to function rationally or effectively. The only choice for me was the streets. Of course I am responsible for being a drunk, but there was no way in my wildest dreams that I ever thought that things would get that bad. I imagine that similar factors happen to those westerners ending up on the streets of Thailand; it has all just become too much.

I am sure that those who end up begging in Thailand did not arrive here in such a state. Alcoholics can sometimes achieve a lot of control over their lives and as far as they or anyone else is concerned they are fairly well-adjusted. Most western visitors to Thailand end up in one of the big-drinking areas where all inhibitions go out the window. Places like Pattaya in Thailand can be a drinker’s heaven, but it can easily turn into their hell. All the relatively cheap alcohol with the almost constant party atmosphere combined with the feeling of being away from any type of supervision or constrains can be a recipe for disaster. Any control that a functional alcoholic might demonstrate in his home country is difficult to maintain while in such an environment. It is no wonder that some people lose the plot.

I would never look down on any person who hit rock-bottom while in Thailand. I would do whatever I could to help them. They may have fallen quite low, but this does not mean that they are low people.