Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform > The Seed Discussion Forum
Some insight(s)
GregFL:
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Could it be that many of the people who are anti-seed want to do their
drugs?
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I can only speak for myself and the answer is a resounding NO.
My father and I have had a very difficult relationsip since the seed, but one thing he did teach me was if something causes you more harm than pleasure, don't do it.
Pot stresses me out and makes me paranoid. I haven't touched anything else for over 20 years and don't intend to.
If marijuana was a positive thing in my life I would do it. It is not and I have no interest in smoking a joint and obsessing over my shortcomings for three hours. It makes me feel bad..ie: it causes me more pain than pleasure.
Nowadays a glass of white wine (red was preferred but it stains your teeth) occasionaly is about all I do. I don't get drunk. I don't get high.
Drugs have NOTHING to do with my observations about my childhood seed experience,and in fact since we have gone there I will make this observation...the vast majority of you "the seed saved my life" people have spent your lives battling acohol or drug addiction/compulsion issues. IF the seed saved your life, why did you do the coke and heroin later in life? Why did you need commitment to other rehabs...why did your life desinegrate around a substance abuse problem?
I know your answer already about setting the groundwork for your later recovery..but I call a big BULLSHIT on it.
Sorry....just calling it as I see it.
John_FtPierce:
GregFL,
Please re-read my earlier post. I state that, no, the seed did not save my
life. I am not, nor ever have been, much of a drug or alcohol user at
any time in my life. Before the seed, after the seed. Before going
to AA after going to AA. Or now.
I remember being in AA, it really was somewhat embarrassing. I made a
joke about my being there: Its like going to weight watchers when your
are really only 5 pounds over weight. Being there, in AA was amazing.
To see people who had absolutely destroyed their whole lives with
alcohol. To see them put it back together. And me, being there, for
whatever little reason. Really, I think I was lonely. AA people
understand seed people.
I truly think I would *not* have a drug or alcohol problem with out
the seed or AA. I still maintain that I just wanted a better life. I
don't even like to use the word "recovery". Recovery from what?
Funny, today, I drink a little, and one of my best friends is AA. He
knows me, my whole history, we talk some times. I hang out with the
AA people. They know I drink a little. No biggy. Just good people,
real good people. I've got another friend, severely alcoholic. I've
talked to him about things. He's content the way he is. I'm a little
sorry for him, but not too much of a biggy either.
I've got another friend, he's Muslim. Doesn't drink or anything. But
he is very unhappy, not at ease with life at all. Reminds me of the
"dry drunk" people talk about.
Its not about the drugs or alcohol, its that other thing, the dis-ease
with life.
-- John
Antigen:
Wow! Thanks for giving me the heads up on your update, John. Glad I didn't miss this.
--- Quote ---On 2005-08-06 18:55:00, John_FtPierce wrote:
Could it be that many of the people who are anti-seed want to do their
drugs? I say, go ahead, do your drugs, drink. If you are at ease
with yourself, it won't be a problem. If you are not at ease, it
probably will become a problem. Drugs and alcohol are not the
problem. Its this other thing, the dis-ease, that is the problem.
I personally think that pot should be legalized. Probably a lot of
other drugs too. I withhold judgment on some, very additive, drugs
like cocaine/crack and crank. These really are just too dangerous.
Heroin is bad news too. I volunteered for many years in soup
kitchens, keeping my finger on the pulse of the street. I saw just
too much badness from crack. Crank is just now starting to hit my
area, but the initial reports from the street are real bad.
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Well, I have to agree w/ both you and Greg on this. Though I'm no tea totaler, and I know that many pro-program ppl (including XA devotees) take that as prima facia evidence that everything I say or do is a manifestation of my progressive, fatal disease, that really has nothing to do w/ my recollections or opinions of the program.
I've spent a good many years now looking into the entire troubled parent industry. And I've found it very enlightening. There are obvious and quite objective differences among the programs. But there are certain constants as well. So take away the warehouse, replace it w/ the Utah desert. Eliminate the AA dogma and replace it w/ Mormon dogma. Give the staff Earth names and pretend it's all based in native American mythology; whatever, change and rearrange the window dressing any way you like, then look at the similarities that remain.
In a nutshell, Lifton and Singer's criteria for thought reform and large group awareness type regimens accurately describe those similarities. That would be true even if I were three sheets to the wind.
I also think that pot should never have been prohibited in the first place. Frankly, I don't think any drug should be criminally prohibited. But not because I think drugs are good and people should do more of them. To the contrary, I think all drugs are potentially harmful. And there's just no better way than criminal prohibition to make them more dangerous, more harmful, more accessible to children or more profitable to criminals and terrorists. I can almost say that I agree w/ everything Howard Woodridge has ever said on the topic. See http://leap.cc/ (that's Law Enforcement Against Prohibition)
I do wish people would be more careful about legal drugs, too. We're now just starting to see the long term effects of benzos on an aging population and we have NO clue what to expect or how best to manage the fallout. But so damned many people go through life believing that, if some stranger w/ a license gave them permission to consume ungodly daily doses of psychotropics, why then it must be safe or they wouldn't be allowed to do it.
That's SO wrong! Fact is, the only distinction between legal pharma drugs and illegal or strictly controled drugs (like alcohol and tobacco, which we treat like fire arms) is that the illegal ones cannot be patented. Methamphetamine is legal, provided you have a Rx. Cannabis is not, unless you live in a free country who's national character and prosperity allow them to tell the US to fuck off.
I believe that when I die I shall rot, and nothing of my ego will survive. I am not young, and I love life. But I should scorn to shiver with terror at the thought of annihilation. Happiness is none the less true happiness because it must come to an end, nor do thought and love lose their value because they are not everlasting.
--Bertrand Russell, British philosopher, educator, mathemetician, and social critic
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_________________
Ginger Warbis ~ Antigen
Drug war POW
Seed Chicklett `71 - `80
Straight, Sarasota
10/80 - 10/82
Anonymity Anonymous
return undef() if /coercion/i;
Antigen:
btw, here's a better link on Howard
http://leap.cc/howard/
You know, if Mama Cass Elliot would have shared that damn sandwich
with Karen Carpenter, they would both still be alive today!!!!!!!
--chongo
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GregFL:
--- Quote ---
Its not about the drugs or alcohol, its that other thing, the dis-ease
with life.
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Well...it certainly can be when your life spirals out of control around a substance abuse problem
But I agree..coming to peace and finding "ease" or peace in your life is the trick. Learning what makes you happy and then setting out to do it is part of the trick...as is learning what ails you and avoiding it.
Life can be so good or so painfull. The trick is to go to the good and avoid the bad.
imo....
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