Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform > The Troubled Teen Industry

Alex Asch's Story

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Deborah:
Well, we've got- Bartleby, Papillion, and Cool Hand Luke. None of which have a happy ending if life, freedom, and liberty are important.

I lean toward "counting the waves", but could imagine the Bartleby or CHL options in certain scenerios.

Resistance can land one in deeper doo doo. Not sure which would be worse- in a locked psych ward zoned out of my mind or in a program. Come to think of it, they are pretty similar.

Was reading a post at We've Been There where the kid took option 1 (psych hospital) and it worked well. Told his story to the shrinkydink who recommended he not go back. Guess it would all depend on the sanity of the one making the call.

I think those who fare the best have a good sense of who they are going in, can see through the bullshit, and let the majority of it roll off. But even best case scenerio, two years is a long time to be under the control of crazy people. There's bound to be some ill effect.

Froderik:

--- Quote ---4. Passive resistance. Another way to make them think you are psycho and let you out. Simply shut down. Refuse to speak, refuse to listen, refuse everything. Passive resistance (for a good example read "Bartleby") is probably the most frusrating thing in the world for a person to deal with. If you really want to scare them, refuse to eat.
--- End quote ---

When I was in straight there was a guy who went this route, and then some. Todd Bagley. He had pale blue eyes and looked kind of like a goat (I don't mean this depreciatingly..you know how people sometimes remind you of animals) or maybe a little like Zachary Taylor (played Dr. Smith on "Lost In Space.") Anyway, right from the start, he refused to walk. In was a major hassle for anyone to take him anywhere. I can still remember him being held up by the beltloop while he sagged stubbornly in the rows of chairs. He got put into intake rooms frequently. He would start in with completely surreal monologue. Like pretending he was holding twinkies, for instance. He got called on to relate once and said, "I AM Straight Incorporated!" I nearly fukkin died laughing inside at that one. It was hilarious, especially under the circumstances. Christ, he was weird. He would stand up and start talking about something absurdly typical and then pretend that he was crying. Matt Lyle started confronting him once and he kept repeating everything he would say. He'd also do things like stay awake for days on end, making life hell for whoever was lucky enough to be his oldcomers. They needed to do shifts with him. I felt sorry for Mike Salvini when I read an obs he had written begging staff to do something about him. Todd got out in a couple weeks. It was when the lawyers were there in VA straight. (Anyone else remember this?) I even overheard them interviewing him telling them why he thought that he shouldn't be there. He sounded as normal as could be.

FaceKhan:
Also along with the passive resistance thing, I hear that singing a song in your head is a good way to ignore just about anything. They can be yelling at you and you just space out with your song all the time. I guess its like counting the ceiling tiles but perhaps a bit less boring.

The violent route could work well if the place can't get much worse. If I were in some WWASP hell hole I would just be so dangerous they couldn't keep me. I'd stab a staff guy with a pencil or pen or the nurse with a thermometer. Any staff member is fair game. Fight to maim, go for the eyes, the chest, the throat.

The people who just struggle and fight all the time and get restrained just end up getting beat up a lot from the accounts I have read here. On the other hand a person willing to maim just for spite with no warning or provacation (other than being held prisoner) is just more trouble than the $5k a month is worth.  

This may seem sick, I have not been around the boards as much and I think that anger is rekindling itself about this industry again.

Its true Bartleby and Cool Hand Luke didn't survive but Bartleby died because he gave up on life. No one was really hurting him. Luke was imprisoned by the state, a program can't kill you for attempting escape.

Personally, if it were some kind of wildnerness program I would just refuse to hike. Passive resistance until they kicked me out. If it was some kind of lockdown or cult indoctrination center, fuck em, I am walking out of there and the first one who tries to stop me is gonna be called one eyed jack before they can pile on me. They can't keep me and prosecute me for assault so they gotta choose between being eye gouged one at a time or exposing their operation in a trial or kicking me out of the program.

Antigen:
In Straight, there was actually a rule against "rocking out in your head". Being the consumate band geek and church chior member, I had a ready list of extremely non-rock songs to confess to whenever I got accused.

That had worked pretty well before my formal intake, too. I'd noticed that my mom was extremely confused by Jesus Christ, Super Star and just freaked out by Tubular Bells. So I acquired both albums and played them pretty often.
It really puzzles me to see Marijuana connected with Narcotics - Dope and all that crap?it's a thousand times better than whiskey - it's an Assistant - a friend.
Louis Armstrong
--- End quote ---

FaceKhan:
I know why this is bothering me more lately. Cause my friend Alex who got kidnapped and thats how I ended up in this cause is now telling me that the over 18 program that he openly admits is not very helpful for him and after 18 months at 5500 a month his Dad has put his foot down on his Mother's delusions that she is a perfect mother and just has an evil kid. Now the program owner offered him a "job".

I don't even want to get into the argument with him over the fact that the owner as well as my friend have no qualifications whatsoever and regardless of how much or little money they actually make from this program its still a scam. My friend always says they pay a lot of insurance. That may be true but not for an over 18 program the way they do for a juvenile program. The owner is like a failed stand up comic. Place is called AIM House in Boulder Co.

Thats a great tactic, take a guy who has trouble finding a job and does not really want college at this point, and basically provide little more than a place to live for a year and a half for 5500 a month and then offer him a job to keep him in the cult.

Maybe when the job falls through as it often does, he will start to get his head cleared. He says he is moving into his own place in Denver by the end up the year. Maybe 30 minutes of distance will get him back to thinking for himself.

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