Bizarre AARC myths

[Rachael]

Just remembered something odd...

When I was in AARC, they told us all sorts of random stories from the outside world; some true, some not so much.

I just remembered one thing that mildly disoriented me after I left.

The entire time I was in AARC, Dr. Vause and other "counsellors" told us that light bulbs could no longer legally be sold off the shelves in grocery stores as too many crackheads/meth junkies were stealing them to fashion into pipe-like devices.

When I finally was able to go into a grocery store many months later, I was shocked to realize that you could still buy light bulbs without having to explain yourself to a cashier.


Why did they make that up? I have no idea.


Just one more of the inexplicable little things from that place.

[hanzomon4]

These people are pathetic, lying about the outside world...........

[Anonymous]

I remember when you were in AARC those few days before you ran away. How does a new post regarding light bulbs and centering around your perceptions of AARC's sharing of the outside world strike you? A little odd as an off the cuff vent perhaps.....maybe they had a point....to see if you could reason on your own and stay focused on building a more centered psyche. Pray you are well and hope to hear from you soon.....

[Rachael]

Alright, to address your post "Buck" bit by bit:

I remember when you were in AARC those few days before you ran away.

You may be saying one of two things here. (1) You were only in contact with AARC in the last few days that I was there. Or (2), you think I was in AARC for only a few days before I managed to escape. If (1), that's fine and I wonder who you are. If (2), your cognitive abilities may be lacking a little as I was in AARC on Step 1c for six full months before I ran.

How does a new post regarding light bulbs and centering around your perceptions of AARC's sharing of the outside world strike you?

This sentence doesn't seem to make much sense to me.... perhaps the subject matter of the post is not the most stimulating and intellectual, but that was not the point. I just remembered from far out of the distant past a very weird moment brought to me by AARC, and I commented on it.

That "strikes me" as being perfectly in context.

I suspect that you may have been trying to get at something else here, but I really can't figure it out. Feel free to elaborate.

 

A little odd as an off the cuff vent perhaps.....maybe they had a point....to see if you could reason on your own and stay focused on building a more centered psyche.

I agree with you! This was a very odd event. However, I don't believe as you seem to assert that the motivations for it were so innocuous. AARC's entire structure is based upon destroying a person's natural ability to reason and function normally and replace such abilities with a complete reliance upon AARC and later AA and Alumni groups to perform all reasoning for them. AARC intentionally removes all contact with society at large in order to be most able to influence the mind of the "client" undisturbed. They do this by restricting access to anyone not in the program (including family members) in person, by phone or any other means of communication; preventing access to all news media; disallowing going out in public in any way; restricting communication between "clients" such that conversation about outside events is strongly discouraged or completely forbidden; etc, etc, etc.

And one other means of cutting the ties between the individual and society is by promoting strange little lies like this one; thereby making the world as given to them by AARC different from that which actually exists outside those walls.


At least, that's my theory anyway.

[...]building a more centered psyche

And "building a more centered psyche" is certainly not either the stated purpose of AARC nor anything close to what I recall happening there.



Finally,

Pray you are well and hope to hear from you soon.....

I've heard this line so many times from disapproving AARCites. Right now, it particularly irks me, so I've created a post dedicated to it:

http://www.fornits.com/wwf/viewtopic.php?t=20672

[Rachael]

By the way, I've kind of taken out a lot of frustration on you (Buck) that is probably misdirected. You really didn't say anything offensive at all, I'm just not in a particularly forgiving mood towards AARC.

I apologize for likely coming across too severe, and I really don't mean to take it out on you personally. It's the institution that bothers me.

And hey, who are you?

If you know me, I wouldn't mind talking to you.

If you're not comfortable letting me know here, send me a private message.


Hope to hear from you soon.....


Rachael

[Anonymous]

They were lying to you then, becasue lying has become an automatic process for them.
They decieve isolate, disorient, break at a saturated consistancy. rate. Thusly, The "lying part"of their mind has been overutilized to an extent that lying has become pathological.

I am using a laymans language to express the findings of valid psychologial research.
Pathological liars have certain parts of their brains which are over used "overdevelouped". As having a naturally" overdevelouped portion of your brain can influence you to lie, so can constantly lying overdeveloup that portion of your brain. It becomes a vicisous cycle, not unlike actual drug abuse
The woman just couldnt stop doing what came naturally to her by that point  She has driven herself crazy

[Anonymous]

Uhh... I went through AARC, I've been sober a long time too.. They never told me anything like that..

My ill feelings aren't really at AARC, I'm glad they got involved. Call me a Republican, but honestly if they didn't get involved, I would be a train wreck.

Rachel, if you aren't an addict.. then you aren't an addict... pretty simple is it not?

Ill feelings I have are personality driven, yes there are some pretty idiotic people there. I've noticed some pretentious bullshit from some of them, but the majority of the people that work there I give a good deal of respect to.

I don't like the way they treat single parents, but Im more impressed by their end results (when successful).

People need to stop masturbating. It's melting their brains.

[Anonymous]

I think they were teasing you Rachael.  i don't rememebr hearing that and I wouldn't approve of that if it was said seriously.

[ajax13]

It seems very odd that someone would tease a youth in drug treatment.  Lying to prisoners about the outside world was a technique applied in a number of situations to break prisoners, such as Argentina and North Korea.  In this instance, the lie re-enforces the image of the victim as deviant insofar as the victim is also a drug user, drug users have forced an everyday item like light bulbs to be restricted.