Umm, does anybody else cringe at the public documentation of this person's problems? The author hasn't spoken to her brother since 2013 -- so how does she know he wants his problems to be made public to all the world? She even gave his full name.
Powerful stuff. I appreciate the parts that talk about the damage AA-based programs have done for the cause of recovery too. Medication and therapy can be very helpful when used in conjunction with effective recovery programs, a view advocated by SMART Recovery (<a href="http://www.smartrecovery.org" rel="nofollow">http://www.smartrecovery.org</a>).
hard to add anything:<p>"TROSA’s CEO, Kevin McDonald, is imposing beyond his height but maintains a folksy and reassuring demeanor. He’s a military brat, he tells me. His difficult home life bloomed into an early dependence on alcohol, and then, later, heroin. McDonald was facing a 20-year prison sentence for armed robbery when a state supreme court let him begin a lengthy stay at Delancey Street, a San Francisco therapeutic community.<p>"So I go there, and it’s a two-year program," he says. "I started going forward, learning how to communicate a little better, eventually realizing I didn’t have to use my fists and I hated violence. Learning to care about people, letting people care about me, learning job skills, et cetera. So I stayed 12 years."
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Even if they don't have full-on attack rituals to break each other down, putting people in a small room and denying them any contact with the outside world does sound more than a little culty. It's interesting how highly correlated rehab communities and cults tend to be - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synanon" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synanon</a> (linked in the article) being a nigh-on perfect textbook example.