Post your positive program experiences

[Froderik]

I can only think of one positive aspect of the time I spent in the program ( straight spinoff in Florida ), which is this.  It inoculated me somewhat against cult-style manipulation.  I spent the five months there ( all on phase one ) watching how they manipulated perfectly normal teenagers and gradually turned them into sociopaths.  I took note of how many rules were just about power and control and had nothing to do with addiction.  I noticed that everyone seemed to be lying in their M.I.’s, which I refused to do and was consistently punished for.  I developed a very serious drug problem after finally escaping which I have since overcome.  I am now an atheist and am very distrustful of groups like AA and NA, although both of those organizations have helped many people, they still require belief in a “ higher power “.  I want nothing to do with the God worshiped by the people in that program in Florida.

The people who started Straight were certainly far from true Christians, just to clarify. In fact one could assert that they were anti-Christian, and they wouldn't be off the mark; Straight attempted to preclude FREEWILL, a crucial element in man's relationship with God (according to Christian belief).

[SUCK IT]

If you felt that for yourself you needed a program to assist you in suicide, that is fine. If the SUCK IT of today is better than what you were before maybe it was a good choice for you. I hope you are not suggesting that you believe that someone should be forced to got through lengthy exhausting rituals that, unbeknownst to them, will require a negative group growth dynamic to acheive ego death among the participants, are you?

I don't even know what you're talking about. The only time in my life I attained ego death was when I took way too many shrooms all at once. I'm not claiming I know what works for other people, I'm simply commenting on my own experiences.

[SUCK IT]

You sound like one of those nasty WWASP seminar facilitators, spouting such things as "magical child" under new terminology and so forth.  I wish I still had my "seminar binder".

At Cross Creek, everyone but staff buddies in a group were allowed cake during birthdays.  The birthday of a staff buddy brought no cake.  Which reminds me, when kids were given a CANDY BAR like SNICKERS for winning the "leader of the month" award, and shit, that was a WONDERFUL reward, because we did not get CANDY BARS...

But we did get pies made of whipped cream and cake...

Where I was at, we got to go pick out candy and junk food once per week. We'd all wait while other people picked, the more far along in the program you were the more you got. The kids doing well would get like 4 items of candy, and some junk food. To me it always seemed like a lot. Every kid got something, the new kids would get to pick 1 piece of candy. When I say piece of candy I mean a full size candy bar, and regular sized candy packaging. They had chips, soda, candy, junk food, and other things like toiletry items that were pretty nice people got to pick from. We were all given what we needed, the basics, and good food. But if you did well, then you could get a lot of candy and other perks. I don't see this as abusive or a negative thing, its like in school when you did something right you got rewarded. The birthday cakes were really good, like a 2" deep cake in a cake pan with a thick layer of frosting on top. It was really good cake. As far as me sounding like seminar people, well I didn't walk out of a program brainwashed. Most of the conclusions I've come to happened well outside the program, after years of reflection and finally being able to get honest with myself.

[photo man]

You sound like one of those nasty WWASP seminar facilitators, spouting such things as "magical child" under new terminology and so forth.  I wish I still had my "seminar binder".

At Cross Creek, everyone but staff buddies in a group were allowed cake during birthdays.  The birthday of a staff buddy brought no cake.  Which reminds me, when kids were given a CANDY BAR like SNICKERS for winning the "leader of the month" award, and shit, that was a WONDERFUL reward, because we did not get CANDY BARS...

But we did get pies made of whipped cream and cake...

Where I was at, we got to go pick out candy and junk food once per week. We'd all wait while other people picked, the more far along in the program you were the more you got. The kids doing well would get like 4 items of candy, and some junk food. To me it always seemed like a lot. Every kid got something, the new kids would get to pick 1 piece of candy. When I say piece of candy I mean a full size candy bar, and regular sized candy packaging. They had chips, soda, candy, junk food, and other things like toiletry items that were pretty nice people got to pick from. We were all given what we needed, the basics, and good food. But if you did well, then you could get a lot of candy and other perks. I don't see this as abusive or a negative thing, its like in school when you did something right you got rewarded. The birthday cakes were really good, like a 2" deep cake in a cake pan with a thick layer of frosting on top. It was really good cake. As far as me sounding like seminar people, well I didn't walk out of a program brainwashed. Most of the conclusions I've come to happened well outside the program, after years of reflection and finally being able to get honest with myself.

- TTI PEDO CANDY TRAP -  :rocker:  :rocker:  :rocker:  :rocker:  :rocker:

[Awake]

Well  the birthday cake conversation struck me as ironic, being that where I was,  part of the program involved one of many secretive overnight rituals involving hours of guided confrontation therapy and intense pressure to disclose every little bad thing you did or even thought about. After many hours of self denunciation and expressions of self hatred, at some point they orchestrated a mock birthday party to celebrate as a sort of tacit agreement and reward for learning the next level of the schools hidden doctrine.  It was basically a ritual to kill off the old you and having a birthday for the new you.

Some , like me for instance, desperately needed the old self killed off. My way of coping was self destructive and my behaviors were literally suicidal. I was on a path of self destruction and the program stood in my way and told me I couldn't keep doing what i was doing. By stopping the self destructive and negative behaviors I let my true self shine through, the really old self, the one I forgot about a long time ago, like I was when I was a little innocent child. That's what I gained back through a long process of self discovery and learning to take personal accountability for my actions and role in my own fate. I'm thankful somebody/something finally stood in my way on my path to death and destruction. I know not everybody feels this way, but I really needed help even though i didn't want it or ask for it. Being in a program was stressful but there were also some positive times and I just thought I'd post some of them in this thread. When I first got in the program I viewed myself as a victim of circumstance, not realizing that it was my own actions that created my reality. It took maturity and time and being able to look at my own experience with an open mind for that to change. It can be a freeing experience to get honest, really honest with yourself because really, sometimes the most obvious things are hidden from ourselves, that other people tend to notice right away.

If you felt that for yourself you needed a program to assist you in suicide, that is fine. If the SUCK IT of today is better than what you were before maybe it was a good choice for you. I hope you are not suggesting that you believe that someone should be forced to got through lengthy exhausting rituals that, unbeknownst to them, will require a negative group growth dynamic to acheive ego death among the participants, are you?

I don't even know what you're talking about. The only time in my life I attained ego death was when I took way too many shrooms all at once. I'm not claiming I know what works for other people, I'm simply commenting on my own experiences.

You really don’t see how ‘ego death’ makes sense in the context you described here? I was beginning to think our programs sounded alike, but maybe they are not. How did you kill off your old self in your program? Was it a group process that facilitated that?


.

[SUCK IT]

I don't consider the troubled teen I ended up being, the real me. That's why I commented about how I feel the real me was more like the kid before I became a teen. When referring to killing my old self, I am talking about killing my troubled teen personality and behaviors. It was either it, or me. Because that's a person who was desperately trying to destroy themselves as quickly as possible. Unfortunately I don't think it was fully successful however, because I still retain some of the addictive traits I had back then (which is why I think its a disease), although I work very hard to control that part of my self now. Back then I embraced it, and lived my entire life within that part of my personality, that was "me".

So when I say that part of me needed to be killed off, that troubled teen self, that's what I mean. I've admitted it before, I was very, very self centered back then. Even a group of people couldn't convince me I needed to change, ultimately it took a lot of things to get me to change. The private program I was at, however, I can accredit with being like the triage, or trauma unit of my overall treatment experience. I was in most danger right when I was sent there, and things calmed down a bit after getting out because the world had changed, and I slowly began to recover after that.

I know what you are getting at, I've read all about LGAT here and how people view this. In my experience this was a very small part of the overall experience though, for me personally it was more of a personal journey and discovery of finding myself. Group therapy can be helpful for me sometimes, but my issues were really about breaking down my own barriers and lies in my own head. I didn't know myself, didn't really pay attention to what was really going on. I was living like an animal in search of food, very instinctual and basic. I had to wake up and look around at the world and myself honestly.

[Awake]

I don't consider the troubled teen I ended up being, the real me. That's why I commented about how I feel the real me was more like the kid before I became a teen. When referring to killing my old self, I am talking about killing my troubled teen personality and behaviors. .

So this was all your concept? Your program didn’t influence this type of thinking in you?

[Pile of Dead Kids]

Yeah, well, you killed the wrong one. Fortunately it isn't quite dead yet.

SUCK IT, do you realize that everything you're saying is practically duplicated word for fucking word in perverted fiction involving BDSM and torture, in which the victim learns to love their captor in a full-force version of Stockholm Syndrome? I'm not joking. Links available on request, but does anyone here really want them? (It doesn't even work for shock value.)

You parrot the seminar crap regularly, but, really, who are you trying to convince? We recognize this stuff on-sight as being Gilcrease bullshit at the least, and most of us are more than happy to point that out. We're also happy to point out that killing the very real teenager to protect an artificial creation child-thing is wholly unnatural in the MRSA sort of way. WWASPS has given you what's effectively mental HIV, killing your defenses to put shit in your head that really doesn't belong there or anywhere else.

At some level you know this. You wouldn't have come here if you didn't at least suspect, particularly not under that username. The real you- the "troubled teen" which is the last of your sentience- is screaming to get out, right now.

Christ, no wonder you want alcohol and suicide. Alcohol shuts up the thing your parents and WWASP have implanted in your brain, and at least suicide would end the torment. A better solution would be to kill that thing directly, but you'll have to discover the secret to that one yourself.

[Awake]

I had some thoughts in that direction, but I’d give SUCK IT the benefit of the doubt. I don’t know enough to say much. From what I can gather there is nothing more that can be said for this place they were at other than that they served cake at birthdays and they hosted them in a good thanksgiving. Any sort of individual or group change dynamic was up to them to participate in from what I can tell at this point. It may be worth the price of a program to a parent so that their child can have a decent birthday party or Thanksgiving meal, no matter the price.


I think there could be better stories in favor of programs. I have heard the best program experiences are not about cake or birthdays or holiday meals. I have heard them stated to be miracle workers, giving people their lives back, repairing relationships, forming happy successful  people in society.  I thought those things were the best reason to go to a program. If we heard more about those things from folks it would be helpful.

[Whooter]

I think there could be better stories in favor of programs. I have heard the best program experiences are not about cake or birthdays or holiday meals. I have heard them stated to be miracle workers, giving people their lives back, repairing relationships, forming happy successful  people in society.  I thought those things were the best reason to go to a program. If we heard more about those things from folks it would be helpful.

Unfortunately, awake, most posters here on fornits  have committed themselves entirely to being anti-program which prevents them from sharing anything positive.  Those of us reading know that they had many happy experiences and made many friends because that is what young people do.  They had staff who helped them through a rough patch, were there for them during personal breakthroughs, celebrated their milestones and birthdays and cried together when others were hurt, laughed together during good times.  The posters who were once staff, I am sure, had many positive experiences otherwise they would have never kept working there.

But there has been such a conditioning here that these stories are intended to be suppressed and to share them would be a breach of the unspoken trust to maintain the façade that all programs are abusive and no one has ever benefited from them.

I have had very little exposure to programs myself but can recall many positive moments when a child sees his parents for the first time in several months and they embrace.  This must be a very positive experience for others who are close at hand and staff who witness these constant reunions.  The celebrations at graduation, the speeches, the individual milestones of getting accepted to college or transferring back to their high school and seeing their friends.  Being able to start their own fire from scratch, beating their counselor at ping pong, acing their first mathematics test, running the rapids in their first white water trip etc, etc,… these are not all negative experiences, by any stretch of the imagination, nor are they meant to be suppressed, yet they are here on fornits (but nowhere else) why is that?

I think we can easily see that we never get the full story here, we only read what they are willing to share and that part of their experience which supports the anti-program spin here.  There has been such a constant flow a negativity that no one is willing to break the cycle and share their honest experiences.



...

[9403390]

Whooter i was at a place as staff for 3 months. Month 1 I had just started and wanted to give it a chance. Month 2 I began having doubts. Month three was when I resigned because i realised i was a part of something abusive. that is why i stayed.Not every single aspect was negative. Thanksgiving was celebrated and they even bussed in real food that we cooked in foil on an open fire. The day was spent just kicking a football around and relaxing and talking and eating. it was far more therapeutic than most of the nonsense that constituted any given day.
I am glad suck it you had a good experience.  i am not just saying this to be an asshole to you but why the defensiveness? Ok it is great that this worked for you but you call yourself suck it and in some instances seem eager to dismiss or even get angry at anyone who claims their experience was negative. It does seem at times you really want to provoke those who had a negative experience. I get that you feel there is group think on this forum and maybe there is in that most are opposed to this system but why present your case in such a provocative manner? Surely if this experience was as healing as you say it would not matter to you whether others are critical.

[Evil WWASP]

Whooter i was at a place as staff for 3 months. Month 1 I had just started and wanted to give it a chance. Month 2 I began having doubts. Month three was when I resigned because i realised i was a part of something abusive. that is why i stayed.Not every single aspect was negative. Thanksgiving was celebrated and they even bussed in real food that we cooked in foil on an open fire. The day was spent just kicking a football around and relaxing and talking and eating. it was far more therapeutic than most of the nonsense that constituted any given day.
I am glad suck it you had a good experience.  i am not just saying this to be an asshole to you but why the defensiveness? Ok it is great that this worked for you but you call yourself suck it and in some instances seem eager to dismiss or even get angry at anyone who claims their experience was negative. It does seem at times you really want to provoke those who had a negative experience. I get that you feel there is group think on this forum and maybe there is in that most are opposed to this system but why present your case in such a provocative manner? Surely if this experience was as healing as you say it would not matter to you whether others are critical.

By writing style, Suck it is "exposeCEDU," a troll whose been kicking around awhile.

Why have the administrators let this troll they banned back onto the forum to play its same provoke and distract game?

Why do people respond to its trolling? A happy WWASP graduate with vague, poorly written fictions... it's ridiculous.

(FWIW, I peg it as a cult  "parent," though it  relayed that there are no properly accredited WWASP staff who spend time counseling the prisoners, something cult "parents" often refuse to acknowledge. It erased that post, probably thinking better of admitting that fact. Then reposted it after being called on its deleting.)

 I wish the VERY smart and good people on this thread would do something more productive than waste their time responding to this roach
 and that the administrators exterminate the thing for good this time

[SUCK IT]

Thanks for the great advice Pile of Dead Kids. Perhaps tonight I will go buy a bag of meth, steal a car and some money and go pick up my old friends and return to the way I was, no thanks. I sort of laughed when I read your reply, I don't think you would mean that if you knew me then and now. This thread is about posting positive experiences. What you view as positive depends on your perspective, some people posted them leaving was positive or when they told off some staff they didn't like. Thanks for your concerns about me though, and thanks for your  post.

Awake I am not pushing any agenda, or that programs are miracles and everyone gets saved. I can only speak for myself, and I know that it did save my life for reasons I've explained before, i won't bore people with more of it now. It wasn't anything more than removing me from my life at home, and putting me in a controlled environment. That is what did the trick, the therapy and LGAT and discipline and structure helped, but it isn't what saved my life. Not being able to run away, and do drugs and try to harm myself is what saved me. I learned some important life lessons along the way, and had some positive experiences like I posted in this thread. The process wasn't very fun and it as stressful a lot of times, but I do know it was necessary and I would have been dead for sure without it. Thanks for your posts.

Thanks Whooter for your common sense.

958472582
I choose to post on this forum honestly. I know that can rub people the wrong way, but this forum claims to welcome all opinions and points of view, in an open free for all discussion, this is their words not mine. If I had an agenda like trying to push a certain program, or make them all seem evil, I wouldn't post in an honest way. It would be more political, and I would concern myself more with how I am perceived. But i really don't care how I come off, because I don't come here with an agenda other than to share my own experiences and opinions, and conclusions based on my thinking. I've talked about how I think fornits has group think and mythology, and it was proved by the post immediately following your own. Is it really that unbelievable that a troubled teen would be sent to a program, and it might actually have helped? To some people this is 100% out of the realm of possibility. When in reality, it is a quite frequent, dare I say, regular occurrence. I've been trying recently to be more respectful, less confrontational and base my posts on my own experiences and opinions rather than talk about what other people are saying, and I am really trying. Because this is a subject I am interested in because I lived through a lot of treatment and it had a profound impact on me, in that it helped me come out of the darnkess of my self imposed misery and self destruction and it was an important part of my life. It doesn't bother me that people are critical of programs, I would be too if I felt that it didn't help, was abusive, or whatever. I simply choose to confront what I view as absurdities that are accepted as fact on fornits, and I try to base my thinking in reality, and common sense. I try hard to be honest with myself and at this point in my life, I will be honest about my program experiences even if it makes a few people upset on this forum. Thanks for your post.

[Shadyacres]

Suck it, you must work for a program, if not, you should.  Imagine how many terrified, vulnerable teens you could help them torture and terrorize.  And after many months, you can make them love you by giving them a snickers bar.  People like you are what made my mom think it was ok to lock me up and torture me.  Self destructive behavior is reasonably common in teenagers and is a normal part of growing up.  Most of us do grow up before actually destroying ourselves and manage to live productive lives.  You were out of control as a teenager, now you are an adult.  You do not need to be so slavishly devoted to this abusive system.  YOU ARE NOT POWERLESS, NONE OF US ARE.  Powerless is what we were in those programs.  We are grown-ups now. ::deadhorse::

[SUCK IT]

People like you are what made my mom think it was ok to lock me up and torture me.  

Yeah, sure... I bet your mom came onto fornits and saw my posts and said to herself "Wow, SUCK IT sure makes some great points about how great programs are. I was undecided before, but now that SUCK IT endorses programs because you get candy bars, I'll go ahead and send my child to a program. Thanks SUCK IT, sincerely ShadyAcres Mom". I must of missed that thank you note from your family, although I do have my pm's turned off, so maybe I missed it? Lets get real here, the reason you were "locked up and tortured" can probably be answered by getting honest with yourself. I thought of myself as a victim of everyone else, just like you do, until I matured and realized that they were only reacting to me and my behaviors. But hey, if blaming me makes you feel better, that's great for you and I'm happy to provide this valuable service to whoever is in need of someone to blame. But maybe instead of arguing with me, you might want to start some of your own threads like "How I was tortured in a program", that might be more effective in convincing future moms like yours who come here for advice why they shouldn't listen to me.