Author Topic: Straight - St. Pete - Springfield '81-'83  (Read 7272 times)

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Offline dreammagician

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Straight - St. Pete - Springfield '81-'83
« Reply #15 on: September 23, 2002, 10:49:00 AM »
Straight sucked plain and simple. Dr. Newton, evil man guised in a beard of hate. The damn songs between raps and the raps themselves. Sit on that bastard, he needs a peanut butter diet. You are a peace of shit. I hated that place even though it taught me that the world sucks. Gladly there is life after straight.
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »

Offline Tampa survivor

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Straight - St. Pete - Springfield '81-'83
« Reply #16 on: September 23, 2002, 05:11:00 PM »
I get sick to my stomach when I hear that somebody who has kids now still thinks Straight was the answer.  Your poor little girl may find out what it is like to be incarcerated for minor stuff like smoking weed 3 times or having a boy's hand in her pants @ 13.  Many of us who were in for "drug treatment" hadn't enough addiction to get past a real rehab's criteria for entry. We were sluts and druggies nonetheless, and taken into straight just the same.
What ever happened to your sister Mike?  Did she get a leg up like you?  Did your folks cut her off like Ginger's did?  Is she able to brag upon HER successes?  I sure hope so.
I LOVE the fact that I split off after two years of hell raising and defiance.  It helped me to develop a rock hard sense of right and wrong and love of freedom.  I am politically involved, raising three kids, paying MORE than my fair share of taxes, and making a real difference to real people in a local hospital every day.  I walked away from a sales career at daddies yacht brokerage(LOTS MORE $$$) to become an RN and sole custody father.
I am happy you got what you wanted from straight Mike, but as far as I am concerned, many  people were broken, confused, or worse.  
Even us who are "strong" were damaged.  I hope you get a real grip on what happened to families like ours.
Bill H
ST PETE/ATL
12/80-12/82
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »
Bill H
St Pete & Atlanta, never surrendered!
12/80-12/82

Offline Tampa survivor

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Straight - St. Pete - Springfield '81-'83
« Reply #17 on: September 23, 2002, 05:38:00 PM »
As this subject has gone off topic, see kpickles new post about sobriety and justification of fascism/abuse.
Bill
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »
Bill H
St Pete & Atlanta, never surrendered!
12/80-12/82

Offline Anonymous

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Straight - St. Pete - Springfield '81-'83
« Reply #18 on: September 23, 2002, 10:07:00 PM »
It is CHILD ABUSE to lie, trick and decieve a child into a mind altering facility that systematically tears him down until he is willing to accept anything handed to him, or held from him, in rder to obtain acceptance and love from his captors. Whether or not the child was an addict, an occasoinal smoker and drinker, or simply had an unpleasing attitude, brainwashing and humiliation is ABUSE and is HARMFUL.
The Seed and Straight SUCKED then and whether you can admit it or if it is too painful to admit it to yourself, it was WRONG and INHUMANE.
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »

Offline ladyjerrico

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Straight - St. Pete - Springfield '81-'83
« Reply #19 on: September 25, 2002, 09:51:00 AM »
I really don't know how Mel Sembler was able to get away with all of this and the other "big wigs" in charge of this whole operation, it's sickning, frighting and very sad. I consider any group like this pure and simple a "cult" they had terminology, motivating with flapping hands, and nearly felt like a Nazi/boot camp for quite some time until we all got out and thankfully still alive.
When things get tough for me in the real world, I think back to myself and say "If I could leave Straight and survive, I can survive anything" and things seem to be not so bad after being through all that horrible torchure in that facility.
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »
usan Minns

Offline MommaDebi

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Straight - St. Pete - Springfield '81-'83
« Reply #20 on: September 26, 2002, 06:39:00 PM »
I think that, because of my experiences in the Seed and watching Straight arise from the ashes left by the Seed, I was able to raise my son with a degree of honesty and acceptance that I was never on the recieving end of....
I am clean and sober, because i choose to be.

My son is clean and sober because like all teens he prides himself on "Being Smarter Than Mom"!! :smile: I say "good for you!!"

I would never have placed him in a facility like these....I think it is all in the early childhood time that children are able to become who they are supposed to be...with support, honesty , encouragement and love.
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »
...every five years I look back on my life and have a good laugh...\" {Indigo Girls~~ \"The Watershed\"}

Offline ladyjerrico

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Straight - St. Pete - Springfield '81-'83
« Reply #21 on: September 27, 2002, 01:25:00 AM »
I believe that a strong family relationship and your own trial and errors allow the key to success, and only if you choose to use what you have learned will it be successful.
I am very happy to hear that your son is free and clean! I wish I never started smoking cigarettes, I hung out with the wrong crowd while my parents were beating the crap out of me.
I think that all teens should be respectful of others and understand how difficult it is when you do the wrong thing, but also learn from the mistakes so it doesn't occur again.
I see children now a days (I'll be 30 in Nov) that when I was that young I never knew half the things they know now.. how life has changed, and sometimes for the better!
I am glad to hear something good for once on this website :smile:
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »
usan Minns

Offline dreammagician

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Straight - St. Pete - Springfield '81-'83
« Reply #22 on: September 27, 2002, 01:36:00 AM »
Being sat on and spit upon is one thing. To take away my pride and my joy of life is another. Humiliate me, put me down, and then just brainwash any good that was in me and let everyone in the world know that I am a druggy scum bag that deserves nothin in life but turmoil. I hat this place and I will always really try to get back what I feel I and others deserve, just a little respect.
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »

Offline ladyjerrico

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Straight - St. Pete - Springfield '81-'83
« Reply #23 on: September 28, 2002, 01:04:00 AM »
I whole heartly agree with that last sentance. I do what I can to understand human nature and try to be kind to others, after all, this is the only life I have and I don't plan on putting anyone through the humiliation, torchure and low-self esteem that Straight gave me, that is the LAST thing I would want to do to someone.
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »
usan Minns

Offline Reid Martin

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Straight - St. Pete - Springfield '81-'83
« Reply #24 on: October 03, 2002, 02:01:00 PM »
Wow Mike, I had no idea you had done so well.  Your story is quite inspirational!  My story is more like a cross between Arnie's and Jeff.  Thanks to both of you guys for opening the door for me.  I've had various degrees of success and failure over the past 20 years.  At one point had more money than God and at another was in a State Mental Hospital for commiting suicide.  I was at that "bottom" when I first found the StraightSurvivors messageboard.  I was visitor number 15 or something.  Kathy made me feel so comfortable at a time of terror as the memories of Straight began to flood my mind.  I learned about Dissociative Amnesia and why I had lost so much memory.  My life has been filled with death and tragedy since I was 12 when I watched my father take his last breaths under the wreckage of a Cessna Airplane.  My Grandfather and Aunt died later that year, then my mother slowly died of cancer, my grandmother later on and...just as I was healing at about 28;  My sister was kidnapped from her suburban home, raped and murdered for the PIN number on her Gold card.  I medicated and sedated myself heavily for the next 5 years.  Nearly got my face blown off in a chemical explosion which sent me to the burn unit and 7 months of quarantine while my skin grew back.  I became a champion in commercial real estate;  Development, rezoning, assembling large tracts of land for shopping center developers and then pain and addiction caught up with me.  I bought a farm, quit my job with plans to restore a herd of musclecars I had accumulated.  I didn't.  I stayed high or drunk most of the time and thoroughly damaged my reputation.  Alone and completely isolated, with too much money, drugs, and pain I didn't know how to process, I started remembering Straight.  That didn't help.  I started out with rage and anger.  I heard of all those who didn't make it.  Eventually, I too, tried to "off myself" (in Ginger's words).  The police found me unconcious in my truck in the woods with a garden hose in the exhaust pipe.  When I got a little better, I felt compelled to tell everyone on the messageboard that I almost got added the memoriam page.  I believed that it was important for some reason.  Ever since I haven't felt very included.  Several emails went back and forth where they forgot to take me off of the email list and I got to read about how I was a whacko, unstable, and dangerous.  Shortly after that I found NA and AA.  I've been clean & sober for 17 months today.  Worked for a year a job to re-learn some disapline, and am now selling all those classic cars cars and property to pay for medical school.  I've got about 2 more years to complete Bio-chemistry and then I'm going to Harvard Medical School for my MD.  Sure, I won't finish my residency until I'm 47.  I am finally doing what I want to do, and living up to my own potential.  I feel better than I ever have, and am in better physical health than ever.  I do have rather severe case of rheumatoid arthritis but sobriety qualifies me for a special treatment that keeps it in remission.  I'm always afraid to say anything about recovery but, it's been great for me.  And, it is so very different from Straight.  Straight wasn't about recovery, perhaps that was the initial intention, but it didn't stay that way.  
Being connected to others who shared that experience has been especially beneficial for me.  That's why I put time into the StraightInc.com site, to allow others the benefits of contact.  Some people hold special places in my memory, and finding them has been awesome.  I guess I mostly want to help anyone I can avoid the pain I've been through.  My bitterness towards Straight has run its course.  Now I just see it for what it was.  I was there when I needed grief counseling, not incarceration.  After I left I stayed straight for 2 years, had a 4.0 in college until my mother died, then started drinking.  My addiction took over only after years of unresolved pain and grief.  

Reid Martin
StraightWebMastR@AOL.com
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »

Offline St Pete83

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Straight - St. Pete - Springfield '81-'83
« Reply #25 on: October 11, 2002, 05:10:00 AM »
Hey dog! Each person has his or her own personal memories about Straight and their feelings are just as legitimate as yours. There were many good people in Straight; and many were able to forge true friendships even in those "worst of times". You may not have any good memories about others in the program; but many others do. I spent some time spewing out hatred about the place as well. After a while I got tired of being angry.


[ This Message was edited by: St Pete83 on 2002-10-11 02:35 ]

[ This Message was edited by: St Pete83 on 2002-10-11 02:40 ]

[ This Message was edited by: St Pete83 on 2002-10-11 04:18 ]
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »

Offline Infinity

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Straight - St. Pete - Springfield '81-'83
« Reply #26 on: October 11, 2002, 12:31:00 PM »
Harvard med school?... wow.... I'm having a hard enough time just getting through college!

That's one of the best ways of getting revenge though--living a good life, in spite of what they did to you... shows them they can knock you down but they can't keep you down...
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »
size=9]It doesn\'t stop after high school...
The Student Voice[/size]

Offline Tampa survivor

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Straight - St. Pete - Springfield '81-'83
« Reply #27 on: October 11, 2002, 02:07:00 PM »
I would like to say to Infinity, HANG IN THERE. Study what you DREAM to BE. Reid wanted to be a doctor.  Great story there. I wish I knew him.  We have software designers,lawyers, sales professionals, more than a couple of DR's and RN's,and all sorts of other sucessful Straight people here. Don't settle for less. College is tough.....I KNOW because I went to RN school with a fresh divorce and custody of 3 young'uns.  As a 30-something guy. This leads me to my second point:  sucess IS my revenge. I transcended revenge when I finally believed I did not need it.   Every time i remember my tormentors at straight predicting what my future would be, I just grin.
There IS a recurring dream where V Miller Newton wakes up on MY unit at the local   trauma hospital...oh, placing traction and starting a 16 gauge IV line would reach a new plane of pleasure for me....
Bill
12/80-12/82
St Pete & Atlanta
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »
Bill H
St Pete & Atlanta, never surrendered!
12/80-12/82