I hope my niece can go to college and be successful. I wish I could be more optimistic about her chances.
Don't give up hope. I went to college right after RMA. (No thanks to them.) The first year, a small liberal arts school in Virginia (because I felt that it would be "more rounded", thanks to RMA bullshit ideology.)
Halfway through my stay there, I realized that I hated it, updated my portfolio on my own time, applied as a transfer student and got into Syracuse University, which has one of the top ten fine arts programs in the country.
Again, no thanks to RMA. I wish I could say there is a formula for deprogramming yourself, but as far as I know, there is no pattern. If you are smart, there is no guarantee that you will be able to pull yourself out of it right away. I guess if anything, it takes tenacity and guts to go for what you want to do in life... and possibly if your identity is so directly oppositional to the program, that it bites you in the ass on the way out and you have to deal with it. All of ours was, but mine was *particularly* opposite... and having to face it eventually was non-negotiable.
I was lucky in that I am an artist, so I already had a goal and a direction... well before RMA ever entered into the picture, and I was able to get my shit together enough to attend college, even before I was completely deprogrammed.
Sure, I drank in college, smoked a little weed, did dex once, but altogether, my recreational narcotic use has always been rather tame, with the exception of some chronic weed smoking during the turn of the millenium, which had some serious adverse affects on my depression. Now, I only smoke on vacation.
I think that the worst long term symptoms I have suffered as a result of RMA are things such as attachment issues (which were pre-existing, but exacerbated by the program), arrested development, socialization problems, social paranoia/hyper-vigilance, self-hatred/poor self-image, self-absorption (case in point, this post, which is all about me. But I wanted to give you an example of one survivors' post-program story), narcissistic/borderline tendencies, and sexual dysfunction.
I know that sounds bad, but it could be worse, and I work on these issues constantly in an effort to transcend and heal. I'm higher functioning than I've been in a long time. As one of my best friends said: "Jonathan, you are the most well-adjusted fucked up person I know."
I took that as a compliment.
The fact of the matter is. People struggle. Everyone has problems. Some problems are weirder than others, but never underestimate the cussedness of a human being. We are tough little bitches.
I would be lying if I said I was successful. I have struggled, partially because painting majors aren't really in high demand in the job market, and I realized after college that the fine arts scene in San Francisco was a bunch of pretentious, self-masturbatory bullshit that was only worth the free buffet and the boxed wine at show openings. Did some temp work, got fired a lot, went to school for programming, got a good but grueling job, kind of fell apart and went on disability for bipolar, am now back in school for the third time as an animator, and plan to get a job in this ultra competitive field when I graduate in two quarters.
It's taken me about 18 years to get here, but I'm here, and here is good.
I'll end up in film credits eventually.