Fornits
Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform => Straight, Inc. and Derivatives => Topic started by: Anonymous on July 21, 2005, 12:51:00 AM
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Ok..so I randomly came across all this straight, seed, kids, safe, etc programs. I am so sickened by all that I've heard that people went through. I can't understand how they are able to keep programs like this going. How was religion made a part of the "treatment"? Has anyone ever been held accountable for the abuse they inflicted? How did "students" transition from that to a staff role? How widespread was sexual abuse? How has this impacted your views on social services, substance abuse, and mental health treatment? Has your parents views changed about the program than when you were sent there? What do you think about other programs like outward bound? Did you recieve schooling when you were there? How long were you in the "program"? What were you told you needed to do in order to "graduate"? It's amazing hearing the stories of survival...I don't think that I could've made it...thanks for answering my questions. I hope that it isn't offensive for me to ask these questions and feel free to not answer and bitch me out...thanks
-megan
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Hi Megan. No, the questions you are asking are not offensive in the least there. So ask away. You may find some sorry humor from other's who don't have much to do or just don't have much more than their experiences at prior institutions. Some people, honestly, had to suck crotch in order to move forward in their programs. Some people had to lie and cheat to get up in the impossible phases.
Everyone in my program had to come up with these ultra life changing events in order to make us all think they were changing. People seem to enjoy this. And people are all liars on this level even now. We make impossible lives where everything we look for has to be somehow miraculous or it is just plain boring. Ask yourself if you know anyone like this.
How was religion placed in the order of things? Well, its easy to create documents and words are all we have. People create whole myths from words that sound convincing. If you are a minister, right now today, you can, with very minimal difficulty, open your own faith based initiative. You can house children and believe me, the government and local city will love you for it!!! You will be rolling in dough and respect after a time. Noone is really going to be able to come forth because the government will protect you under Faith Based Initiatives. If you get your child business shut down for abuse, you can just go open a new one down the street under another name, take the same kids you have in your current building and move them down the street to the new one!
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On 2005-07-20 21:51:00, Anonymous wrote:
"Ok..so I randomly came across all this straight, seed, kids, safe, etc programs. I am so sickened by all that I've heard that people went through. I can't understand how they are able to keep programs like this going. How was religion made a part of the "treatment"? Has anyone ever been held accountable for the abuse they inflicted? How did "students" transition from that to a staff role? How widespread was sexual abuse? How has this impacted your views on social services, substance abuse, and mental health treatment? Has your parents views changed about the program than when you were sent there? What do you think about other programs like outward bound? Did you recieve schooling when you were there? How long were you in the "program"? What were you told you needed to do in order to "graduate"? It's amazing hearing the stories of survival...I don't think that I could've made it...thanks for answering my questions. I hope that it isn't offensive for me to ask these questions and feel free to not answer and bitch me out...thanks
-megan "
As far as group members or students becoming staff, I think of Lord of the Flies as the best way for me to describe the situation.
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Dear Megan,
Boy that was a lot of questions you asked there. I will say one thing, that the abuse has made me lose my mind, so that I talk to myself. To get me to do what they wanted me to do, they had to make it sound like a big emergency. So they had to tell me really how terrible I was, and therefore I had better change and become not so terrible or else. What happens a lot of the times when a person is abused is they learn to do it to themself. I don't really know how or why. So now in my head I still tell myself that I am terrible.
Another thing is choices. Because in Straight, people were always getting stood up for doing something even though they had "had a doubt" about doing it. So anyway, now I still get really anxious about choices and I am wondering just how much that has to do with Straight. I need some serious post-cult therapy but I don't know where to go for that really.
But I was just recalling when I was back "home" on second phase, my old room that I used to burn candles in and sterilize my knife blade over a flame before I cut my arms so I could cause myself pain and be in control of it instead of all the pain from the domestic violence scene getting at me, well I don't even remember that room so much, but it was mine! So then on second phase there I was and the walls had even been painted, everything of mine was gone, it was blank white walls and two beds and a dresser or something. My mom closed me and my newcomer pet in the room at night by setting some alarm on the door from the outside. So now, my room was a cage! Can you imagine the deleterious effects of this on a person's mind, trust of their parents and every damn body else pumpin up and down the block with their fuck ass opinions of me and gossiping with their kids about me so that two little boys taunt my little sister about me doing drugs or whatever, then my little sister is mad at me about it?
See that's how bad everyone wanted to convince me that I was bad. Well Straight taught my family to be mad at me for the most ridiculous things. Like, at open mic, my parents stood up and very pathetically said how disappointed they were that I had melted candle wax onto my textbooks or something. Feel free to laugh out loud. That's just how much Straight liked to crank people's brains around to have a really stupid view of their child and everything. People do that anyway, but Straight had a whole dogma to teach everybody about how bad and manipulative we were. So years and years later my mother still called me manipulative when I was just trying to get some help from her, like people do for their kids, normal people really do.
See we were scapegoated.
It's good to really remember a lot and figure it out -- I just don't have it in me to answer your questions more concretely, but I think other people will. If they don't I will come back later.
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On 2005-07-20 21:51:00, Anonymous wrote:
How was religion made a part of the "treatment"?
They adapted the "God as I understand him" jive from the AA/NA Stepcult. "God" being the Executive Staff at Straight.
Has anyone ever been held accountable for the abuse they inflicted?
Not nearly as many and not nearly enough as need to be held accountable.
How did "students" transition from that to a staff role?
Some were recruited, some volunteered, usually after going on some weird power trip.
How widespread was sexual abuse?
Much more widespread than any of the Staff would ever admit.
How has this impacted your views on social services, substance abuse, and mental health treatment?
I think social services may be helpful, I use drugs occasionally, though not as much as I used to (I was doing drugs as a way of asserting my independence from and resistance to their program). In general, substance abuse treatment is a joke, a racket, or both. Our country is in the grip of drug hysteria, thinking that ANY drug use is 'abuse'. I am very skeptical of many mental health treatments, although I think they may be effective in certain cases and situations.
Has your parents views changed about the program than when you were sent there?
My parents, until the days they died, bought into the dogma that it saved my life--the usual 'jails, institutions, and death' line of bullshit that these cults spout.
Did you recieve schooling when you were there?
Oh hell no. The program 'logic' was that school was a waste of time that should be spent dealing with my (non-existant) 'drug problem'. When I reached a high enough phase to attend school, I was in three different ones over the course of three months, depending on where my foster home was. I had no time to complete assignments, and ended up getting my high school diploma at night school after I left the program.
Hope that answers some of your questions.
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My view of social services in terms of alcohol treatment is this--
AA is a joke and so is any treatment that is based on it. It's wrong to tell people they are powerless and to tell them they can't think for themselves. It's just another cult, although much more insidious. It seems to be losing popularity though...I believe one day it will dwindle down and fade away. People don't buy into the cult like mentality as easily as they used to.
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Has anyone been held accountable--
I think Newton was in that he's paid out like 12 million in damages. But now he's in Florida running a freaking church.
How did clients make the transition to staff--
Because they were brainwashed, and well before they ever made it to staff too. You had to believe, or you would be screamed at and worse every day until you started to "work the program." Some people may have faked it, but it was very hard. You start to forget that you are faking it, and forget who you are.
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What were we told we had to do in order to graduate--
It really wasn't that clear cut. In fact I think that was part of the deal, you not knowing what the hell is going on or what your'e supposed to be doing. You just start trying shit and see how it goes. It didn't really matter anyways, they treated everyone the same at first, like they were full of shit, lying, drug addicts etc etc. Even kids who had never done drugs would get treated that way until they "got honest" and started talking about how they were a drug addict. You just feel your way in until people stop screaming at you and for some reason the 5th time you ask for talk with your parents they act like you actually deserve it. I never really knew why.
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My parents views--
Honestly I've been too scared to ever REALLY talk to them about it. I'm not sure why exactly...partly because it was so drilled into my head not to talk bad about it to my parents and into THEIR heads as well, they were told to expect us to make up a bunch of lies about the program. I didn't want to walk into that trap I guess. Also, I guess the feelings of betrayal were so strong in there, maybe I don't want to risk feeling that again.
School in the program--
Yeah once you made it to 4th phase you could go part of the day to school, but you couldn't talk to anyone that seemed 'druggie' or anyone who had run away. You also couldn't dress up at all or wear makeup or do your hair. After I ran away I saw that one girl from there went to my high school. She coulnd't even look at me, and she looked like a freaking zombie. Pale skin, stringy hair, and she looked terrified too. But that was probably because she was afraid I would speak to her and she'd have to clear it up in group and maybe get started over on DAY ONE if she wasn't very, very careful.
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On transition to staff:
We started transitioning to staff on first phase. Remember T&R? In my time, there sometimes weren't enough 2nd phasers to beltloop all the newcomers to the lunch line and bathrooms. So newcomers w/ T&R did it. On 2nd phase, most of us had newcomers pretty quick. So that was a pretty clear staff role. Even outside of the newcomer/oldcomer relationship, we all were expected to join in the snooping and snitching ASAP.
Some ppl went on to staff, others didn't. Hard to say WTF went into the decision to offer pre-training to one or another kid. But staff was and, I think, is just another phase of the program.
Every man has a property in his own person.
This nobody has any right to but himself.
The labor of his body and the work of his
hands are properly his.
--John Locke
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On 2005-07-21 12:40:00, Antigen wrote:
"On transition to staff:
We started transitioning to staff on first phase. Remember T&R? In my time, there sometimes weren't enough 2nd phasers to beltloop all the newcomers to the lunch line and bathrooms. So newcomers w/ T&R did it. On 2nd phase, most of us had newcomers pretty quick. So that was a pretty clear staff role. Even outside of the newcomer/oldcomer relationship, we all were expected to join in the snooping and snitching ASAP.
Some ppl went on to staff, others didn't. Hard to say WTF went into the decision to offer pre-training to one or another kid. But staff was and, I think, is just another phase of the program.
Every man has a property in his own person.
This nobody has any right to but himself.
The labor of his body and the work of his
hands are properly his.
--John Locke
"
During the year I spent on 5th phase (which was way too long)I was the only 5th phase girl for sometime. While I was at school along w/ the 3rd & 4th phase girls, the 2nd phasers would be the acting 5th phasers standing on the side of group and belt looping to the bathroom.
To this day I do not know what their justification was to keep me on 5th phase for an entire year. I was not "problematic" or committing "wrongs", nor was I ever accused of being "FOS" or "Faking It". It had to be because they needed a babysitter for all the newcomers.
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THIS IS A GREAT POST AND FOLLOW UPS.
THERE ARE SOME ATTORNEYS ARE ON HERE AND SOME PARALEGALS ARE INTERESTED IN CONSIDERING FILING SUITS. YOU SHOULD SEE IF YOU CAN CONTACT THEM THERE.
survivorsagainststraightinc@hotmail.com
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For which straights? All of them or just certain ones?
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Straight told me that a doornob can be my higher power as long as the doornob is perfect.
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It's Megan again. I thank people for the answers they've provided me. Someone mentioned the transition to staff happened in the beginning and something about T&R, what is T&R? Did the people who became staff after being a "patient" get paid? Could people become staff even under the age of 18? What were you told when people "ran away" from the program? Did they in their f*cked up logic explain why they did the different things that were a part of the program? (ie did they say why you couldnt' go to the bathroom alone?--I mean I understand it's a control/power/breaking down tactic, but did they provide any justification for this?) Did people stay past age 18 or 21? I read that the SAFE program does. Were there any staff memebers that weren't so hooked into the messedupness, that actually tried to help? Do you think residental treatments (could be drug, mental illness, or "behavior disordered" *rolls eyes) provides benefits that outweight the potiental risks? Did any of you come from already "dysfunctional" homes or would you say that straight caused it? Has any straight or straight like program survivors written a book of their account?
I understand that each person experienced things in a different manner and everything people say is their own story. I'm not trying to make some vast generalizations, but to understand what you experienced. I again don't mean to cause people to relive memories they don't want to go anywhere near, but if you're willing to discuss I'm greatful for that. Thanks.
Megan
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Hi Megan,
On 2005-07-21 17:07:00, Anonymous wrote:
Someone mentioned the transition to staff happened in the beginning and something about T&R, what is T&R?
T&R = Talk and Responsibilities. If the staff and group approve it, after some number of weeks, a new client is allowed 5 minutes closely monitored talk w/ their parents after open meeting. Next step is T&R, where they're given back the responsibility of walking within the building and to and from the car (when instructed to) w/o having an oldcomer hanging onto the back of their pants (beltlooping).
Did the people who became staff after being a "patient" get paid?
Barely.
Could people become staff even under the age of 18?
Yes, but I think you had to be 18 to be a sr staffer.
What were you told when people "ran away" from the program?
Nothing! Not a word. It was verbotten to ever speak of anyone who was not present in the room at the time. You couldn't even say "Someone is missing."
Did they in their f*cked up logic explain why they did the different things that were a part of the program? (ie did they say why you couldnt' go to the bathroom alone?--I mean I understand it's a control/power/breaking down tactic, but did they provide any justification for this?)
Yes, every day in Rules Rap. We were made to stand up and repeat the rule and a stylized recitation of the Program defined reason for it. The reasoning behind beltlooping and a bunch of other rules was that whatever we did to get ourselves put in the program included lack of responsibility and self respect and so we had to earn back enough trust to take a shit in private and to get ourselves to the john w/o being closely guarded by an oldcomer.
Did people stay past age 18 or 21? I read that the SAFE program does.
Yeah, some people did. Some were court ordered, others had wealthy parents and were willing to put up with a LOT to get a shot at all that cash. Others still were just that brainwashed.
Were there any staff memebers that weren't so hooked into the messedupness, that actually tried to help?
Sort of. You had to be drinking pretty deeply of the kool-aid in order to think there was any value to that form of treatment. But some of the staff were sincere in their intentions, I'm sure.
Do you think residental treatments (could be drug, mental illness, or "behavior disordered" *rolls eyes) provides benefits that outweight the potiental risks?
It would have to depend on what kind of treatment we're talking about. If we're still talking about confrontational TC, the answer is no.
Did any of you come from already "dysfunctional" homes or would you say that straight caused it?
I think it takes a pretty messed up person to turn their kids over to lunatics like Straight! Not that they let the parents know all that much ahead of time. But it was more than obvious to most people (i.e. all the ppl who got the pitch and passed them by as obvious nut cases, including my best friend's dad the Sheriff)
Has any straight or straight like program survivors written a book of their account?
Well, Arold Trebach dedicated a chapter of The Great Drug War to the story of a Straight, Inc. victim. And there are supposedly a couple of books in the works. What was the title of that book published in the UK about the author's sister in the program? I could find it. There are posts about it on straight_inc_alumni over on yahoo. Anybody know offhand?
I understand that each person experienced things in a different manner and everything people say is their own story. I'm not trying to make some vast generalizations, but to understand what you experienced. I again don't mean to cause people to relive memories they don't want to go anywhere near, but if you're willing to discuss I'm greatful for that. Thanks.
Megan"
Hey, participation here is entirely voluntary. Thanks so much for your interest! I get the sense that this is more than idle curiosity. What have you got planned?A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.
-- Robert Heinlein
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In Michigan they took people up to 25 years of age and we had quite a few of 20-25 year olds there.
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Private message me with your email and I will send u my story.
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How can I PM you?
Megan