Oh shit I opened a can of worms..... :eek:
I'll tell you what, let's start with how many kids relapse after leaving a program and go to harder drugs than they done before going in
LOL
Technically if the kids did not embrace the thinking of the program then they simply put their drug use "on hold" and it wouldnt be considered a relapse when they start doing drugs at home again. So even if all the kids move onto drugs after the program the program can claim that no kids relapsed because the kids never embraced the program to start with.
And therein lies the circular logic and self fulfilling prophecy that comes from programs.
When I look at my own life it comes down to this. As I've said, I was the "lightweight" of the group of high school friends I was hanging out with. I had only smoked pot and drank (save when someone slipped a quaalude to me without my knowledge). I went thru Straight and ended up doing harder drugs after getting out because I believed what they told me about being an addict (even though I wasn't anywhere NEAR an addict before going in) and was diagnosed with PTSD from the abuse suffered in Straight. The kids who were doing much "worse" things in high school than I was who did NOT go through a program, grew out of their "bad" behaviors and went on to become fairly normal, well adjusted adults. Once I rejected the notion that I was an addict and shed the Straight and AA way of thinking, my life began to resemble some sense of normalcy. I realized that I was not an alcoholic and that I wasn't doomed to a life of death, insanity or jail. That's part of what I mean when I say that there was a vast difference between what Straight taught us to believe and reality.
Yes, it's anecdotal but still.
