Many people who find themselves homeless for extended periods of time are often also living with a severe mental health condition. This can make it harder for them to find a job, keep up with bills and maintain familiar connections especially if they're unmedicated which often occurs due to loss of insurance connected to employment. Homelessness doesn't mean a person is unworthy of love or that their family and friends aren't concerned for their safety. Sometimes their loved ones simply don't know where to look for them once they're no longer in the vicinity. Jeff Benardi runs the YouTube channel The Furry Pilot Diner where he goes around caring for stray dogs and making sure the dogs of houseless individuals have food.On one of his recent missions to feed dogs, he ran across Michael J., a homeless man that recognized Benardi as his cousin. Michael's reaction took Benardi by surprise at first as the man was so excited that he recognized someone from his past that he had difficulty verbalizing what he was trying to say. a man pushing a cart full of bags down a street Photo by Etienne Girardet on Unsplash After introducing himself as Jeff, the man excitedly says, "Jeff Benardi," and begins shouting and jumping in place as Benardi asks how he knows his name. That's when Michael breaks the news, "we're cousins," which clearly confused the good samaritan. You can hear the confusion in his voice as he clarifies. Suddenly it was like Michael remembered everything at once as he tries to explain their connection. "Oh my God! We went to Reed High School," he shouts before Benardi confirms he went to the school in 1986. "Listen, we used to go fishing, we used to drink Bud...no not Bud. No it's the other one. It's a cheap beer. Name another one...Keystone. We used to go fishing. I...we...we worked at the Clarkson Company."Guy helping the homeless meets one that turns out to be his long lost cousin. (OC) byu/Crafty_Check_889 inMadeMeSmileIt's then you can hear the recognition hit Benardi's voice when he confirms he worked at Clarkson as well. Michael continued to stumble over his words trying to get out more information to prove they knew each other but Bernardi cuts him off to ask for a hug. The moving video is cut short, presumably due to overwhelming emotions as you can hear Benardi's voice cracking towards the end of the exchange. But that wasn't the end, Benardi has been staying in touch with Michael trying to get him off the streets. In one of his first update videos, he thought he had lost Michael after the police cleared out the encampment where the man was sleeping. After some searching, he was able to locate him sleeping on a couch outside. Michael became emotional when Benardi asks if he's tried homeless shelters saying, "yeah, I don't want to go to a shelter I just want my family."In another update Benardi writes, "Today I am trying to locate family for Michael. We were childhood friends and my family loved him so we always called ourselves cousins. I love this guy! I tried bringing him to my house and he mentally was not prepared and melted down insisting I brought him back to this location until his family showed up."Benardi admits he's out of his depth with trying to help his friend but is determined to help him and will keep showing up for as long as he needs to. It seems as though Michael may be struggling with a mental health condition as he appears to drift in and out of reality, but that doesn't stop his cousin from trying to help. Benardi's followers were able to donate enough money to get Michael a phone so he could stay in touch and hopefully reach his family, which is exactly what can now happen.According to a commenter, they're Michael's brother and after seeing the video are actively trying to help him as well, writing in part, "I found my Brother today. Unfortunately he did not want my help. He was staying near my cousins house and they would check in on him everyday. His mind is pretty messed up. He is on his way back to our mother's house. So hopefully he will chill out for a few days."All of that from a chance encounter with someone that jogged a 25 year plus memory. Sometimes the power of social media can feel surreal. Michael says he hasn't seen his family in years and is obviously seeking familial connection. Hopefully once he is reacclimated to interacting with others he will be able to get the help he needs to come back around fully, until that time Benardi and Michael's family will continue to look out for him to make sure he's safe and knows that he is loved.

Our understanding of ADHD has come a long way in just a few short years.It wasn't even formally recognized as a medical condition until the 1960s! By the time the 90s rolled around, diagnoses and stimulant prescriptions were extremely prevalent.Today, diagnoses and treatment are a lot more thoughtful and individualized, and there are more options for treatment and therapy. But we still have more to learn.A new long-term study published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry has proven to be an excellent next step in getting a better understanding of the disorder.483 participants who were diagnosed with ADHD in childhood were assessed for a period of 16 years. The study's authors wanted to get a sense of how ADHD symptoms might change over time.What the researchers found surprised them. In most participants, symptoms of ADHD fluctuated greatly over the years. What surprised them even more were the environmental factors that seemed to play a role in those fluctuations. Photo by BUDDHI Kumar SHRESTHA on Unsplash Researchers expected that greater life demands — like more responsibility at work, a heavier workload at school, major life changes, etc. — would exacerbate ADHD symptoms. What they found was the opposite.It makes sense that a person that struggles with inattention or hyperactivity might have more trouble focusing when they have more "going on," more distractions to pull them in different directions.It was a huge surprise to the researchers that, actually, people's ADHD symptoms seemed to ease up when life got hectic.“We expected the relationship between environmental demands and ADHD symptoms to be the opposite of what we found,” study author, professor, and clinical psychologist Margaret H. Sibley explained. “We hypothesized that when life demands and responsibilities increased, this might exacerbate people’s ADHD, making it more severe. In fact, it was the opposite. The higher the demands and responsibilities one was experiencing, the milder their ADHD.”I have a 4-year-old with ADHD and the findings totally track for me. We find it's actually easier to be in perpetual motion sometimes — out running errands, doing activities, visiting friends and family — versus staying put too long. When we're just relaxing at home, that's when she tends to start bouncing off the walls!Doing nothing or doing very little is not often a restful state for people with ADHD. Their brains have more background noise than neurotypical brains — so a quiet, seemingly restful environment can sometimes amplify racing thoughts, negative self-talk, and impulsive behavior versus dampening it.Of course, as always in science, you have to be careful assuming causation from the findings. Annie Spratt/UnsplashThe results of the study don't definitively prove that being busy causes a decrease in ADHD symptoms.“This might mean that people with ADHD perform their best in more demanding environments (perhaps environments that have stronger immediate consequences, like needing to put food on the table for a family or pay rent monthly). It also might mean that people with ADHD take more on their plate when their symptoms are relatively at bay," Sibley says.But the correlation is certainly strong and worthy of more study. In the meantime, the study's authors think the results could be viewed in a hopeful light for people just learning to manage their ADHD.“If you’re a doctor talking with a patient who is first getting diagnosed with ADHD, it’s a huge help for that person to hear the message that, ‘You’re going to have good years and not-so-good years, but things can go really well for you if you can get the right factors in place,'” Sibley said.We're learning more and more about what those factors are — what might exacerbate symptoms, what types of things can help. And we're starting to get a better and better picture of how people can manage this challenging disorder.

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The Christmas classic is on cable and network TV this holiday season.