Hi Brown
I'm glad you had a positive experience. I am sure there are genuinely helpful programs out there. Those that are truly beneficial and legitimate would have no issue with transparency and tighter regulation. It would expose all programs for what they are, good, bad or horrifying.
I graduated from Straight Inc 22 years ago. I took staff training, led the sibling raps on Saturdays, stayed in the 7 step society for 18 mos., spoke at local kiwanis clubs, high schools and churches. I did some talk radio while still on my phases. Not only was it a great way to advance but I genuinely believed the program rhetoric that I was sharing.
Of course I also believed that I had to control every thought in order to be happy, that feelings were just a momentary lapse of reason to be corrected with rational thinking, that I deserved all the things that happened to me there and forever after, that I was worthless.
And the abuse was real. I personally witnessed a girl get punched in the face by a senior staff member & get dragged across the room by her hair. I personally attended stakeouts attempting to capture and return kids who had escaped the program. I saw dozens of kids carving into their faces, arms, legs with anything they could find in an attempt to escape their overwhelming misery. I personally exercised in a windowless, air conditionless warehouse in central FL until I had rug burns, I personally saw girls faint or drink water until they threw up, I personally had my diary entry about losing my virginity read to 300 or so of my peers and was told what a selfish, worthless slut I was until I broke down, I personally was denied more than 4 hours sleep for weeks at a time, I personally was on the peanut butter & jelly diet for 30 days at a time-3 times, I personally moved from foster home to foster home weekly sometimes daily I personally was denied private bathroom privileges, I personally was denied the right to use the restroom at all on several occassions and was forced to go on the floor in front of hundreds, I personally was confronted and humiliated for using the bathroom, I personally cleaned up my urine as well as that of two other girls with my hands while the staff watched and giggled.
I was 15 and had smoked pot for less than a year.
And before you begin with the "you must be some kind of loser blaming all your troubles on the program" let me fill you in. I was married for 17 years, I have two children and have a successful career. When I was finally terminated from straight after my 3 year involvement, I was determined never to look back. And I never did.
Until my husband died and I found that my coping skills were somewhat compromised. I was struggling with grief and depression and an intense fear of vulnerability. I entered therapy and for the first time began to look inside and try and understand.
In spite of my experience I wouldn't dream of coming to this website and pronouncing that all treatment facilities are bad and must be closed down. There is simply no way I could know about every program or every individual's experience. Likewise there is no way for you to know about every program or every individual experience. Can you imagine how offended you would be if I responded to your post by saying you were crazy you couldn't have had a good experience because all programs are bad. You must not have graduated, been in long enough or done it right if you think they're useful at all. You must be a liar or stupid or drugged. Pretty offensive right? That's how your post came across to me.
Please do share your experience. But it will be received more openly if you speak about YOUR experience vs making all encompassing, sweeping statements and judgements about other programs or the people who were in them.
End of lecture. ::soapbox::
Talk amongst yourselves......
Allow the President to invade a neighboring nation whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion, and you allow him to do so whenever he may choose to say he deems it necessary for such purpose, and you allow him to make war at pleasure. Study to see if you can fix any limit to his power in this respect, after having given him so much as you propose. If today he should choose to say he thinks it necessary to invade Canada to prevent the British from invading us, how could you stop him? You may say to him,--"I see no probability of the British invading us"; but he will say to you, "Be silent: I see it, if you don't."
--Abraham Lincoln