Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform > Daytop Village
DAYTOP Did Me Great Harm in the Long Run
SEKTO:
My name is B and I graduated from a DAYTOP outpatient facility (located in what was called the "Dresser building") in Dallas TX in 1993.
Back when I was a senior in High School, my parents caught me smoking grass and tripping on acid and put me in DAYTOP on the advice of my guidance counselor.
Fifteen years later, I am just now starting to see that DAYTOP is nothing but an abusive cult disguised as a drug treatment program.
And it blows my mind to start to realize what happened to me there.
I am beginning to consider myself a victim (yes, a VICTIM) of the early-90s Troubled-Teen Industry hysteria.
The DAYTOP program in general is certainly a thought-reform environment, whether at the outpatient or residential level.
In retrospect, knowing and understanding what I now know and understand about abusive groups, it was definitely very cult-like.
The way they broke down my boundaries, controlled my thoughts, emotions, and behavior, shamed and humiliated me before my peers and re-defined my personal identity amounts to psychological torture that was inflicted on me; in some groups/cults, they'll call the confession sessions "Hot Seats," but in DAYTOP, they are called "Encounter Groups" or "Marathon Groups," which were run by a bunch of thuggish fools with no training in psychology whatsoever.
It has taken me years to even understand what happened to me there, to even begin to recover from my experience in DAYTOP.
That place was as traumatic as the eleven months that I later spent in Iraq in '05.
Their approach is very confrontational, very emotionally traumatizing to a kid: "WE'LL SCREAM AT AND HUMILIATE YOU UNTIL YOUR WILL IS BROKEN AND YOU'LL WANT BE SOBER FOREVER!!!"
Their goal is to make you dependent on DAYTOP (or by extension, on groups in general) by reinforcing your identity as an addict and generally "broken" person.
They'll make it so you are dependant on DAYTOP, or else some other group.
Later on in life, I spent time in a religious group/cult in an unconscious attempt to re-create the "therapeutic community"/groupthink environment to which I was accustomed in DAYTOP, and which I mistakenly began to see as a good and healthy way of living life.
After I got out of that place (it took me a year and a half to graduate) me and all of my Daytopian buddies all fell off the wagon together big-time. I never partied so much or so hard in my life as I did with other Daytopians.
So I am a DAYTOP graduate, an ex-member of an abusive religious group (DAYTOP is abusive and cultic, but not so overtly religious to my recollection) and an Army veteran. That's three groups.
DAYTOP got me started in the unhealthy groupthink mentality.
I am a little angry with my parents for putting me in that place, but they didn't know. We thought that it was a good thing at the time.
It all started with DAYTOP. I can pinpoint it to them now. I am starting to understand how profoundly detrimental an effect that place has on my life. And it grieves me.
What are your thoughts, readers? I am in intensive psychotherapy now for trauma and PTSD-related issues and am only just now beginning to come to terms with all of this.
psy:
--- Quote ---in some groups/cults, they'll call the confession sessions "Hot Seats," but in DAYTOP, they are called "Encounter Groups" or "Marathon Groups," which were run by a bunch of thuggish Puerto Ricans with no training in psychology whatsoever.
--- End quote ---
There is a variation of this group confrontation in every program I can think of mentioned on this website. A lot of it came out of Synanon, a cult in southern California (although the techniques themselves are much older). If you research Synanon's "Game", you'll find that it's methods been copied all over the country in nonprofessional therapy cults and cultic groups. One notable example was Straight Inc. which called the encounter groups "raps". This term is also used in many other programs (this, of course is no coincidence). Judging by the language you've used, I'm guessing you probably already know a lot of this. Does your therapist have experience with cults/cultic groups and understand how they work, of have you had to do most of the research on your own?
Sadly, your experience as you describe it is hardly unique. Indeed, the influence of similar cultic groups seems to be growing rather than shrinking.
Oh... and welcome to Fornits!
SEKTO:
--- Quote ---Judging by the language you've used, I'm guessing you probably already know a lot of this. Does your therapist have experience with cults/cultic groups and understand how they work, of have you had to do most of the research on your own?
Sadly, your experience as you describe it is hardly unique. Indeed, the influence of similar cultic groups seems to be growing rather than shrinking.
--- End quote ---
Both. I am a serious researcher of cults and new religious movements, and my therapists are two of the foremost experts in the area of abusive and controlling relationships in the US. My therapists have a huge amount of expertise and experience with cult-trauma survivors. More later. I'd like to keep this chat going if it's OK with you. I find it very cathartic.
psy:
--- Quote from: "SEKTO" ---I'd like to keep this chat going if it's OK with you.
--- End quote ---
That's what this discussion board is for. I think you'll find a lot of people here with similar experiences, though the "book knowledge" does vary from person to person.
SEKTO:
Two things about DAYTOP I remember quite well:
First, I'll tell of a Jewish lesbian "counselor" (DAYTOP grad from NYC and unqualified armchair psychologist) and self-described "diesel dyke" (that is not a homophobic comment from me, that's actually how she described herself to us) who we had there that I'll call "Marcia." I used to dread going into the encounter groups that Marcia would run, as she was especially confrontational and vicious in her approach, to the point of being sadistic about it. She'd encourage us to scream at and verbally abuse one another. She'd make fun of me relentlessly, telling me how phony and plastic and shallow that she thought I was. She'd encourage the others to pitch in and tell me how weak I was too. I remember when I made it to "coordinator" (the top of the DAYTOP chain of command) and she was teaching me how to conduct "haircuts" she'd tell me I that I was "too soft" with my counseling approach and encourage me to yell at people with the intent to shame and humiliate them. She, in effect, was teaching me how to verbally abuse my peers. She once humiliated me in front of the entire "DAYTOP family" in morning meeting by making me dance around in a silly fashion while everybody laughed at me. And all in the name of helping me to "overcome my issues."
The second thing that I remember really well was the periodic visits by The Monsignor, and how we'd all have to meet together and he'd pat us all on the head, one by one, like little kids or pets or something. He'd never walk up and shake your hand like a grown-up, he'd pat you on the head like you were a cute four-year-old. I always found that to be weird and inappropriate.
They'd verbally abuse and humiliate us, a bunch of teenagers, and teach us to do the same to one another. Incredible.
If there are any good things I remember about DAYTOP they'd be: the fact that I made friends for life there; two of my best friends are DAYTOP grads and they're doing well, we used to party like mad but they are sober now with wives and kids and good jobs. Also, at least in DAYTOP they taught me how to identify, get in touch with, and appropriately deal with my feelings. It was genuinely therapeutic and beneficial in some respects. So it wasn't all bad, just mostly bad, and the residual effects of all that verbal abuse and degradation and groupthink indoctrination remain with me and negatively impacts my psyche to this day. It took me fifteen years or so to figure out that DAYTOP, the "drug treatment program" was a front for an abusive cult group. It blows my mind.
Can I tell you anything about DAYTOP in those days? Any questions or comments?
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