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Topics - bmarkalum

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Benchmark Young Adult School / Benchmark Transitions / My experience
« on: August 07, 2010, 04:06:13 AM »
My experience at benchmark wasnt bad.  It was strange most all the time but i still have some fond memories.  I know this isnt the case for everyone who attended.  I recognize by his username a kid who had an apple shoved up his ass against his will by his roommates.  I know they did other deranged shit to him but i forget specifics.  A lot of the weaker kids with disabilities (i.e. aspergers) were picked on or humiliated by others.  Nothing terrible ever happened to me there, no one fucked with me and i had resigned myself to my fate so i didnt give the counselors any shit and they reciprocated.  What shocked me the most about Benchmark was how oblivious the staff was to how messed up things were there.  I used meth a couple of times while in level one and drank regularly.  My roommate had a gun and fired it one night into the smoking pit.  I still laugh at the image of the counselors running out of Room 1 frantically searching for the culprit.  Allegedly one of the life counselors was fucking a student.  I dont have proof of this, but i saw a picture of them together at a concert in dallas a few months after he graduated and moved back there.  One time after a hike a counselor kept asking us about our first masturbation and sex experience at the campfire that night.  Weird things like this would happen regularly and i got used to it.  At times it was the only thing that broke the monotony of that place.  I didnt get much out of the program but i guess you get what you put into it.  Once i moved to level three it was as if i didnt exist.  I wasnt drug tested, i came in once a month, and never gave them a pay check.  My friends from the program and i went to tijuana twice.  Once we brought back heroin the other time we were detained by the mexican police and extorted for all the money we had on us then freed.  My adventures in mexico arent a reflection of Benchmark, but youd think that they would see the signs or keep a closer eye on us.  One thing that i got out of the program was the work that Dr. Nelson and I did with my problems with my family.  Other than that the only thing i picked up while there was an IV heroin habit.  My actions are my fault, but im not sure i would have been exposed to heroin had i not enrolled.  

By the way,  I was 19 when i enrolled.  My mother told me were going to look at rehabs in california, im from texas.  I agreed to go with her because i knew i needed help.  We got to benchmark, toured and i told her it wasnt the right fit for me.  She told me tough shit and that if i left before the year was up, the 50k she spent was going to be reimbursed by my college fund.  I wasnt forced to go but i wasnt going to take that kind of hit and i knew i needed help so i decided to wait it out.

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