Here's a cut and paste of something I posted on this thread a while back. Why say the same thing again in a different way?
...you have not walked the proverbial mile in my shoes and are not the judge of me. There are other things, personal things about my background and life story that I did not tell of and that you therefore in fairness cannot take into consideration in coming to such a conclusion; there are many other factors involved here that you are not able to take into account in attempting to evaluate me and my experience in DAYTOP, as I related it.
In other words, I am not here to tell you my autobiography. I am here to tell you about my experience with DAYTOP and how it affected my life and the lives of my friends, some of whom lost their lives. Mike Gomez, for instance, got pushed over the edge in DAYTOP and died from negligent treatment IMO.
I was a relatively stable person in the first place, and the DAYTOP environment was in fact the destabilizing influence, not the other way around; Daytopianism completely undermined and utterly warped my personal identity and sense of boundaries.
Simply put, my conclusion is that the "one size fits all" approach to that kind of "therapy" basically does not work, and in the long term far more persons get hurt than helped, especially (like me) if they did not need to be in a program like DAYTOP to begin with. It is (the DAYTOP way) not legitimate medical treatment, it's thought reform, mind control, and DAYTOP is little more than a "sobriety cult." I do not know of one single person from that time period that stayer "clean and sober" in the longer run, and we (me and my Daytopian friends from circa '93-'94) have all had major difficulties in our post-DAYTOP lives, but are all generally doing well now, fifteen years later. Some more well than others I suppose. I myself am more than OK and getting better all the time.
Everything I wrote is true and accurate to the best of my recollection. I stand by everything I wrote 100%, and again, would testify to it in court if I had to.
Maybe certain minor details I did not recollect accurately, but that in my mind is of little consequence. I mean, this was fifteen years ago.
Magnificent: you don't know me, friend.
Here's a bit of personal information about me that I chose not to disclose until now to give you an idea of the bigger picture.
I have a relatively mild form of Asperger's Syndrome.
Basically, I am on the high-functioning end of the autistic spectrum, I am a non-neurotypical person, am strongly introverted by nature, and am an intellectual, though also am quite socially awkward and prone to more than my share of personal eccentricities.
I got caught smoking weed and tripping on acid, my parents took the advice of my high school guidance counselor and put me in there so that DAYTOP could fix their kid.
Somebody like me would find DAYTOP to be a brutal and distressing environment.
I should never have been there to begin with.
None of those counselors back then had degrees, none of them at all.
I doubt that most of them would have even heard of the MBTI.
If the DAYTOP staff had been in any way, shape, or form properly trained professional counselors, they'd have picked up on my PDD right away.
Just like Mike Gomez. He was a FASD kid. Complete fabrication my foot. The guy was buried in the Restland cemetery in Dallas TX, right across the street from NorthPark Mall. I can take you to the exact spot of his damn grave if you like. I went to his funeral, for God's sake. A lot of us did.
If DAYTOP staff back then were degreed professionals they could have picked kids like him and me out and made the appropriate referrals right away.
No, instead we were labeled as being "bad kids" and subjected to a regimen that repeatedly taught us that something was wrong with us, that we were lazy ungrateful babies.
DAYTOP basically said "We don't like the way you behave. Stop it. Behave the way we tell you to behave or else."
I internalized all that junk and in an effort to undo the DAYTOPian programming I have been forced to dig deep and realize the program is still running and is self sustaining, not requiring new input, because the program in a sense robbed my identity and in it's place put reformo-me.
I have to a great extent rebuilt myself but the "disk operating system" is still performing commands , if you get my drift.
So I'm not going to argue with you, Magnificent.
You have no idea, no idea at all of what else I do with my time, my extreme efforts toward self-improvement and the educational activities that I have undertaken.
You don't know me from Adam and have no right to be so presumptuous as to think that you do.
You know nothing of how sick or how well I am.
You know nothing of how much of a failure or success I am.
You know nothing of what is going on in my head, or in my heart.
Don't tell me who I am, or how I think.
In other words, I am not here to tell you my autobiography. I am here to tell you about my experience with DAYTOP and how it affected my life and the lives of my friends, some of whom lost their lives. Mike Gomez, for instance, got pushed over the edge in DAYTOP and died from negligent treatment IMO. Ask Marcy about him maybe.
