Funny, I just went back on another thread and read JU's posting directed to me, dripping with sarcasm. I guess I must have touched a nerve, John, I'm sorry. I am also glad that you have achieved your goals, and that you are living a good, productive life. I apologise for my own sarcasm, which is a weapon of weakness. My weakness is my anger in reaction to your post, where you flip my own questioning and challenging the Seed back on me - essentially to put me on trial for my Seed years, my relationship with my family, my own integrity, and my present.
Wow.
I am back on the front row, I guess! Fortunately, I am an adult at this point, and I WILL walk out those doors. At the age of 19, I was in turmoil, looking for someone to tell me, please, what to do with my life. The Seed supplied all of the answers without ambiguity, and I signed on. I won't do so now.
I won't take the bait, John.
All I am doing here is exploring my feelings, both positive and negative, about my 7 year association with now-defunct drug rehab/cult/community of choice, whatever you want to call it. I have legitimate questions about the value of that association for me, the usefulness of that model in current treatment for addiction, and the role of coercion, peer pressure and 'choice' play. I have seen family members struggle with addiction, including my own mom who required a legal and financial guardian and involuntary treatment for alcohol-induced mental and physical breakdown, so I have struggled with these issues in a way that is not merely academic.
I would love it, John, if you would address these issues: when is it OK to compel someone into treatment? What should the nature of that treatment be? And what are the limits to that treatment, if 'tough-love' or whatever is a part of it than how do you eliminate abuses?
Walter
