030307, I'm still waiting for some sort of response - "honest debate" if you will - with respect to AARC. What good did it do me? I was not an addict, not even close, so what was the point?
Rachael
I went to Benchmark, not AARC, but they did the same to me. I didn't drink, smoked pot a few times... My parents sent me there becuase they found out I'm bi. several months later, I truly believed I was an alcoholic, and everything that implies.
Like Rachael, my associations with left-leaning politicical and human rights activism made me unpopular with the staff at the school, and no doubt influenced their classification as me as an addict/alcoholic.
My feeling is that GUEST is either staff, or a relatively recent graduate. Rachael is sober, you twat, and I barely drink at all (really). Maybe you, Guest, are an alcoholic/addict, maybe not, but I wouln't trust the judgment of anybody but yourself on the matter... not your parents, not AARC, any other treatment center, or AA for that matter. Like Rachael, I was told that I had just cought my disease early, adn I should be glad I didn't have to go down the road the staff weant... (WtF... I had gotten drunk ONCE before coming to program.)
For AARC to tell rachael that she was chemically addicted, when she had only used pot and LSD is ABSURD considering both substances are not physically/chemically addictive (pot is about equivalent to caffiene, LSD isn't physically addictive at all). Some argue that Pot can be psychologically addictive if used every day over an extended period of time, but others debate this. Since there are few, truly neutral studies done on the matter, it's difficult to know.
I, too, was told to stop using big words.. that I was using them to cover up how I felt. The truth was, as I see it, is that they just didn't like to appear as if they weren't educated in contrast (and they didn't like to have to ask things like "what does euphemism mean?").
God damn Rachael.. the more I read of your post, the more it sounds like Benchamark. I was also told that I had no rights in program (they told us we signed away our rights).
Guest: Did you ever see AARC reject a kid for admission on the basis that he/she wasn't an addict? My guess is: no. Becuase like most programs, as long as the bills get paid, they don't give a fuck. You probably think that I'm lying about my issues, bla bla bla... that I really have needles sticking out of my eyeballs... Well. You can think that. I don't care.
Don't be a stranger... remember: Keep coming back, it works if you work it!