Its alright, he's only been graduated seven months. At seven months, even though I had run out onto the streets in an unfamiliar town and hid for 31 days.......if you had asked me if I was the victim of, or if I had witnessed any abuse, I probably would have said no. In fact it wasnt until some 14 years later that it even occurred to me that I had a right to do a google search on Straight, Inc......somewhere deep in my brain the whole confidentiality rule was steadily holding vigil without me even knowing it, and I assumed that no one would ever be speaking about the program....that was dangerous.
Until then it never occurred to me either that the broken bones or the bloody noses or the screaming and vomiting and disease and deprivation and verbal slayings were wrong. I mean, it was a DRUG REHAB......they didnt HURT people right? I ran away from my program not because I was being forced into slave labor, physically deteriorating from lack of sleep and proper nutrition, and developing a lovely case of severe anxiety disorder.....no, it was because I was just too weak, right? When I came home a month after my elopement, my mother and I didnt even speak of it, not once....not once for many many years. There was a subconcious gag placed on my psyche that no matter how much healing I encountered over the next decade, I was powerless to remove or even recognize.
This person Noah, unfortunately is not a reliable source for advocacy of AARC at this time.
