From: (Durtro) Subject: Re: What's a TC Rehab?? Date: 1997/07/27 Newsgroups: alt.drugs.hard i did eighteen months inpatient voluntarily in a TC in Alexandria, Va, called 2nd Genesis. it was psychic warfare, and i was lucky and got some good things out of it. mostly sobriety, which was important at that time in my life. i stayed sober for seven years, before making a conscious decision to do what i pleased with the rest of my life. very structured. theoretically they are based on the original treatment model for druggies, and that was a hell-hole in Cali called Synanon. confrontational therapy, group therapy gang-bangs, job responsibilities in the house, total unbending honesty is expected. hard-work contracts for admitting your guilt are common, or were in the rehab i went to. cardboard signs around my neck told everyone the truth, regardless of what i or anyone else said. no drugs of any kind except required medications. lots of hard work, if you try to skate through someone will probably bust you out...i learned alot about how many lies i was telling myself, about life, about my mind, about the world. i was a sick, stuttering 100 pound mess from doing crystal meth for 7-8 years, and shooting coke and heroiin and PCP, frying on acid. i was toast. i couldn't speak in complete sentences and i was totally crispy, and delusional. the confrontation was good. it was hard for me because i wanted it to work, and i worked very hard. i wouldn't be alive today, i am certain, if i had not had that time to find out all of the basic things my well-meaning, but horribly angry and fearful parents never taught me, like the value in caring for yourself by being honest within. i'm not fixed or well, but i was never broken. i have recovered from my absolute self-destruction, now i just play with it at will. i am not a victim anymore. expect the TC to have it's own language, buzzwords, brainwashing techniques, people getting their sickness off on you, just like in the real world. except you can't hide for very long in a TC, not if it's a ballbuster like Second Genesis was. the rules and the therapy are harsh. and it can be hell. and i wanted to leave, every day i was there, just about. the slogans and the rhetoric will be beaten into your head until you feel you being brainwashed. but there is a truth there, that i found, and i am greatful for it. i really needed to do the sober thing. 28 day programs don't work without a daily followup program of therapy, or meetings, or whatever. now i am at a place where i have burnt out on self-help. there are some things that we don't choose, and some things that are inextricably ours. that damn TC helped me to figure out for myself what the difference was. i can't say it was a load of crap. it saved my life, and there wasn't much chance of that happening. there are few people who knew me then that would have though i would be 37 earth years old someday. i dunno. it's hard, and i would rather die of a heroin overdose than do it again. honestly. but i don't need to do it again, 'cause i don't wanna do no smack. a recent acquaintance of mine asked me if i would do smack with her if she got some. i said no. she is no longer an acquaintance of mine. now pardon me, i have to do a massive bong hit. and watch some pornos. cya not well yet durtro ==================================================================== From: (Durtro) Subject: Re: What's a TC Rehab?? Date: 1997/07/27 Newsgroups: alt.drugs.hard i am sorry to have glossed right over your specific questions-obviously rehab was a powerful experience and i kind of went off on a tangent. i could actually write for hours about it. when you get into a therapeutic community you have no privileges. all priveleges, phone calls, letters, used to be cigarettes and such are granted based on behaviour. the house functions are broken up into departments. Laundry, Housekeeping, Security, Kitchen, Driving, organizing fundraisers, etc. here's an example. after being inpatient and not leaving the facility for six months i was put into the next level of program. it is a heirarchical structure, level 1 you go in level 2 you get responsibilities and job counseling and become a peer leader type for the newer residents...level three you work outside the facility but still live there, and you plan your freedom and earn your money and meet all program criteria before they let you out. you can be held back or have priveleges revoked for no reason...this supposedly teaches one to roll with the punches sober. they intentionally give you a lot of hard things to deal with, the theory being that if you can get through this Therapeutic Community sober you can most likely do life that way too. the last time i posted this my crappy newsreader froze and i lost it...stay tuned for more... ==================================================================== From: (Durtro) Subject: Re: What's a TC Rehab?? Date: 1997/07/27 Newsgroups: alt.drugs.hard Therapeutic community part three... so, within this very rigid structure is a theory and a rule-it's called "accountability". confrontational therapy requires this element for self-discovery. it can be rough. the confrontation is encouraged among all the members of the community. it doesn't always come from a benevolent place, either, out of the mouths and minds of junkies who are drying out, many hating life, many using the TC as a means to avoid jail time..."i robbed the old man to get money to buy crack" "the court says you have a crack problem" "we remand you to 2nd Genesis or whatever for the duration of the program. if you do not complete the program or abscond (run away) you will be sentenced to five years in the state pen". so, a certain population doesn't want to get sober. they are in there to ditch the state or fed prison. or maybe they just want to chill there, get their tolerances back down, and do it right next time. then you have dorks like me who's lives are completely in chaos, dissaray, spiraling into a tiny nothingness where death or insanity is the only option (gee...i wonder which one happened to me?!?) 'cause we'll stick anything in a needle and shoot it up while we're tripping balls on acid and then take a fistful of pills drink a case of beer and go for a drive. i was 5'10" and 112 pounds after meth''n'smack. i looked decaying, like junkies do. they cut corners to get my ass in the facility because they were certain if they put me off that i would have been dead. no drama. i was a living NDE. that was 1984... i wasn't used to doing anything i didn't want to do. up and at em at 5:30am to make breakfast for a bunch of junkies in recovery. they can be a bad-feeling bunch, and i was feeling pretty bad myself, 24 and living in a rehab. and no sugar in my coffee? and i have to do what? and what else? it becomes a microcosm of life, all the stuff people keep so well hidden just shows all over the place. all the baby behaviours, fears that we never confront, hell, it can all come out in that type of environment, being held accountable by a bunch of people, most that you don't like 'cause they're junkies just like you, and it just sucks especially 'cause they are just like you. i know i am using pronouns interchangeably, i am aware you are concerned about your friend, but i am just telling a story the best i can. there's a lot to it, think of it as boot-camp for the mind. if a person is insecure it will come out there, if a person is weak it will show...it's some tough stuff and alot of people may think it is BS but if you want it to work and a life is being completely destroyed or abandoned, a life that requires desperate measures to save...it can work. it's a place where i learned to live everyday not doing drugs. where i learned to go for a job interview sober, walk down the street sober...i had never done that as an adult before. from age 13 to age 24 it was quadrophenia. what is it? i'll take it. so blah blah blah...i hope you're able to get a rough idea out of all these words words words...i wish your friend the best of luck...and you as well. ==================================================================== From: (Peter McDermott) Subject: Re: What's a TC Rehab?? Date: 1997/07/28 Newsgroups: alt.drugs.hard In article <19970727074501.DAA05619@ladder01.news.aol.com>, durtro@aol.com (Durtro) wrote: >i know i am using pronouns interchangeably, i am aware you are concerned >about your friend, but i am just telling a story the best i can. there's >a lot to it, think of it as boot-camp for the mind. if a person is >insecure it will come out there, if a person is weak it will show... You obviously feel pretty positive about your experience, and I've known a lot of people who also feel TC's saved their lives, but I have to say that I've known a lot of people (both clean and using) who felt very differently about their experiences in TC's. People who *were* weak, and were subjected to arbitrary and merciless bullying which was justified in the name of 'confrontation'. People with no qualifications playing amateur psychologist with seriously damaged residents. A tendency to further abuse women who had already been sexually abused by forcing them to 'share' the details of their abuse in front of a group of men who had no commitment to recovery and were simply getting off on the sex stories. Refusal to share was regarded as not being committed to recovery. Corruption and exploitation on behalf of staff members - in everything from their own use to having sex with residents. One particular (religious based) TC here in the UK had it's own plane and used to hold out the bribe of flying lessons to any young boys who were happy to have sex with the priest who ran the place. On top of all that, I believe that they are based on a flawed premise about the basis of addiction. This views addiction solely as an individual pathology and completely denies any social causes, thus robbing some people of a better understanding of their situation. I'd highly commend a book called 'Walk the Walk and Talk the Talk' by Geoffrey R. Skoll (Temple University Press) to anyone interested in TC's. Although an academic book, its an ethnography so is very readable, and offers a sophisticated critique of the institution. Two barrels up!