Sunday, July 14, 2013

Popo at Positive Impact (From:Fornits)

This testimony was written on the Fornits Home for Wayward Web Fora december 2012. All rights belong to the original author known as Popo

Hi I attended positive impact aka P.I.

I left a year or so before it closed and the best way i could describe the program is surreal. When i left it was almost like i had never been there, like time had just skipped over about a year.

Thankfully I was sent to another program "high frontier" before i turned 18 which i still resented of course but at least it wasn't abusive and they seemed to have good intentions. Positive impacts on the other hand was a HELLHOLE and anyone who tells you different is a TOOL. At times it seemed like that place was actually intended to cause psychological damage. Which kind of fits with their slogan "balance through imbalance" or something like that i don't recall exactly.

Someone mentioned Scientology earlier in the discussion and from what I've read about it the tactics used by both organizations they have a lot in common. there was a lot of emphasis on confessing and wallowing in your "shame" as they called it but this was delved into most deeply in the 4 different workshops which i never attended and oddly enough never even learned much about, despite my being there for nearly a year. No one ever wanted too discuss them and i never really pressed the issue. I did glean secondhand that food/sleep deprivation and confrontational tactics were used but i believe that you could quit if you wanted too. Although it would set you back at least 2 or three months in your schedule.

In an earlier post the user named Brandon mentioned living your truth. Finding your truth was a big thing but i wont go into it because I never did the workshop but your truth is basically a slogan like "I am lovable or I am powerful" there were 5 or six variations of "I am something good." By the way, I remember Brandon I lived with him in oceanography house when i first came to PI and I recall that he was just about the biggest dork i ever met. Not a bad kid, just a weak person. If i remember correctly he once went through the twelve steps for "Loser-ism"... I kid you not. People like Brandon seemed to do well in the program and honestly, I hope hes still doing well.

The whole point of the program was kind of like boot camp or a cult in that they tried their best to break you down psychologically mostly through "positive peer pressure" which is not a bad concept, but was completely perverted by the program. Anyways they try to break you down psychologically and then build you back up into a more acceptable person. This may have been a positive experience for some people as it seems to have been for Brandon. The problem is that some people don't break down so easily so they just keep leaning on you a little more and a little more until you bend or break.

My personal experience was that they leaned on me pretty damn hard until they started doing things that were supposedly against their principles. Such as making me sleep outside (More uncomfortable than dangerous), not letting you speak to anyone, I recall once i was put on rations of water and a few tortillas a meal for about a week(once again it was uncomfortable but i was in no danger of starving to death or even becoming severely nutrient deficient). By far the most common form of punitive pressure was being sent to the "solutions room" which residents universally referred to as the "box". This was either a closet or, in the house i resided in most often, a concrete square maybe 5' by 5' with 4 concrete walls no ceiling and a entrance that did not have a door. In their literature (which they insist you read) the solutions room is supposed to be room where you are placed if you are being violent, aggressive, or just want some time alone. In reality it amounted to indefinite solitary confinement at the staff or the therapists whim.

I was never once violent or anywise aggressive, i consistently complied with every request/order. I followed the rules as well as anyone else yet I still managed to spend at least a third, probably more like half, of my ten or so months sitting in the concrete box often for a week or more at a time (I think my personal record was about twenty days in a stretch). The reason for this being that i declined to participate in the step structure or discuss things of a personal nature. In my time there i basically did the same things that everyone else did i just kind of refused the "treatment" because i didn't appreciate the psychological manipulation.

Thankfully I arrived there with 14 months till my 18th birthday so I knew it was just a matter of waiting it out and since no-one graduates before a year anyways they really had no leverage over me. Actually they got frustrated and John Anderson personally discharged me 4 months early which as far as i know is the only time that had ever happened. My parents lined up another, more civilized, school (The High Frontier) for the remaining four months.

Altogether I think my Experience there was extremely unhealthy for me psychologically. I definitely left more damaged than when I came in. I don't think that the therapists had bad intentions and some of the local staff were great people; but there was no accountability, almost no contact with the outside world, and the whole program was based upon a loose amalgamation of pseudo-psychology and second rate philosophy. From what I've heard, this was not the worst program out there. Nevertheless they did things that were psychologically damaging, not to mention morally wrong.

The facility closed around 2005.

Sources:

Saturday, June 15, 2013

More than 25 years later (Sean at the Hannah Neil Center for Children - From CAICA)

Received by CAICA September 10, 2006. All rights belong to the auhtor Sean

Introduction

I was only 9 years old when I was sent to the Hannah Neil Center for Children. Today, I am 35 years old. For me, age 9 was a lifetime ago. However, for some reason, the memories that I have sometimes seem like they only took place yesterday. I have been told that I was lucky because a lot of the children who are sent to behavioral modification facilities do not make it out of there alive. One good thing I think that can come from this is to share my story with others, letting them know that they are not alone. Perhaps, a parent may see this and decide that these places are not one of the best alternatives for their child. I may be a survivor, however I have also been diagnosed with PTSD and major depression because of what I have been though, and will have to live with that for the rest of my life.

How it all started

When I was 3 years old, I was adopted by my grandparents because my mom was not currently working and she was in the process of a divorce with my biological father. As I got older, on the block where I lived, there was no kids who lived on that block, let alone the same street I was on. So basically, all of my life, I was around older people, and could not relate to kids my own age.

When I was sent away

In 1980, I was 9 and in the fourth grade at the time. The committee at my home school voted unanimously to send me to a residential treatment center called the Hannah Neil Center for Children. Ironically my fourth grade teacher, Ms. Makely, was one of those who was active on the committee at that time.

Three infractions at my home school led to this decision. The first one was when a girl in my class brought in a prank ketchup bottle. The girl who did this I had a serious crush on ever since the second grade. A lot of my classmates thought that both of us would have made a great couple. Anyways, she brought this to school, and one day she said my name, I turned around and she squirted it at me. The bottle had retractable red yarn in it, but I didn't know it at the time and I blew up. She told me to look down and nothing was on my shirt.

Looking back, I know that I over reacted. To this day, I don't know exactly why. It's hard to describe. The only way I know how to describe it was that I liked her, I thought she liked me, and I felt embarrassed and humiliated when everyone was standing around laughing. No one else seemed to feel that way. When she did the same to other kids, they laughed and played along. My teacher walked in as this was going on. She didn't take my reaction very well. She even tried telling me "Don't you think she might be doing that to you because she likes you and wants your attention?" Unfortunately, to no avail that did not work for me. Infraction #1: cannot relate to his own peers very well - aggressive and confrontational.

The next infraction was my home school's Halloween parade. We would dress up in costumes and parade in the downtown streets of our town for everyone to watch. I dressed up as Darth Vader that year.

Every year my grandmother would stand at the same spot, right in front of town hall watching to see me and talk to me. I stopped by like I had done every single year, except this year my fourth grade teacher took exception to this. That I never did understand. My first, second, and third grade teacher didn't. It was only my fourth grade teacher who did.

She came running back and said "C'mon, let's go! You're supposed to be in a parade." My grandmother said, "I just wanted to talk to my grandson for a minute." I kept talking to my grandmother and my teacher said, "Now! Let's go! I'm not going to tell you again!" I then turned and looked at my teacher and said "My grandmother wanted to say something to me. I'll catch up with the rest of you."

My teacher was a cowgirl for that year. As I was waiting to hear what my grandmother wanted to say to me, she took her lasso, through it around me as if I was a piece of cattle, and she said "When I say now, I mean NOW! Not an hour, not a few minutes, not even a second. Now means now!", and she dragged me on the ground about 5 feet, right in front of my grandmother and other onlookers. My grandmother just stood there and said "Don't fight her, I'll tell you later when you get home." Infraction #2: insubordination - has problems following orders.

Later in that year, we had a show and tell in our class. One of the classmates who lived in the country decided to bring one of his horses to school. I watched as he was talking about his horse and he was showing others how to ride one, how to steer a horse from left to right, how to pick up speed, how to slow it down, etc. Then, he demonstrated and rode off for, I would say, a few hundred feet in this field that belonged to the school.

As he rode up, everyone came up and pet the horse. I just stood back and watched. My teacher said, "Don't you want to pet the horse?" I said "No." She said, "Why not?" I said, "Because I just don't want to." She then said, "Ah, c'mon! Everyone else is petting the horse." I then said, "Yeah, but I just don't feel like it." She then let out a big sigh and said "Well, guess what? You're going to pet the horse whether you want to or not." She grabbed a hold of my arm, dragged my toward the horse, and having a hold of my wrist, she forced my hand, and moved it across the side of the horse." She said, "There. That wasn't so bad was it? Nothing to be afraid of there." Infraction #3: Defies authority, will not conform - incorrigible.

After that episode is when the school decided that I needed to be sent away to learn how other kids interact, so the school decided that in my best interest, I should be sent to Hannah Neil Center for Children. It was outpatient, which meant I was allowed to come home after school was up, where some had to stay there and live. The first two weeks were the worst. During the first two weeks there, I was beaten up and a victim of same sex assault by one of the classmates. This is what my psychologist believes today is the cause of my PTSD.

At Hannah Neil, they had what were referred to as time out rooms (aka seclusion rooms) with doors that were locked for kids who didn't behave. It was a metal door that was painted red on year, yellow the next, had a square window with shatterproof glass with a grid towards the bottom for ventilation purposes. The door did not have a handle from the inside and could only be opened from the outside. The walls were made of concrete squares, painted white, and both the door and the walls had fingernail scratches on them, which was creepy. My automatic reaction was "I wonder what went on in here to make kids want to get out that badly?" Sometimes walking passed that place, you could hear screams. Nothing like let me out, put high pitched as if someone was being tortured in there. I would tense up and my stomach would knot up everything I walked passed there. Even if the outer door was closed to go into that room where those cells were located, it was just knowing what was there behind that door.

They also had a room which was called the "OT Room" (which stood for the Off Trust Room). This one wasn't quite as creepy as the time out room. It just looked like a vacant office. What was different is the doors would be locked by a key, instead of the surface bolts that were used on the time out room cells, and this room had no lights, unlike the time out rooms. So, if you went in this one, it would be pitch darkness. No windows, no nothing. You were monitored by an infrared camera and communicated with through a speaker in the ceiling and that was it.

I was sent to the Time Out room once for fighting. I was defending myself against another kid who was there for awhile. Because no teachers saw who threw the first punch, both of us had to go. It was for 1 day. You had to take off your shoes, if you wore a belt, you had to take that off as well, and give it to a teacher. They brought your classwork to the room and if you couldn't figure it out for yourself, tough luck. It was your fault that you weren't in class that day when teachers were explaining everything. No scissors, paper clips, staples, pens, pencils, or markers. You had to do your class work in black crayon. They brought lunch for you in styrofoam containers with plastic forks, knifes, and spoons. You had to eat your food in there. If you had to use the restroom, you were escorted into the restroom, watched while using the restroom, and you were escorted back. If you couldn't go because someone was watching you as to tried to go, they accused you of trying to get time off from being in there, and they would tack another day on top of what you already had, even if it was only for a few minutes.

Basically, when I was at this place, I was treated like a criminal for awhile. You were automatically assumed guilty and had to prove that you were innocent.

They had a point and level system, where you earned both good points and bad points. Good points meritted trust and certain privledges, where bad points would subtract the good points you earned, moved you back from certain levels (there were 4 of them), and if it was severe enough, you would be placed on "Off Trust" which meant no privledges whatsoever and you would have to start all over again. Once you reached Level 4 and achieved all of it's objectives, you were then released back to you home school.

One they always tried to get me on was "daydreaming". Even if I was just deep in thought, just thinking or pondering over what happened that day, they would try to accuse me of daydreaming and place me on "Off Trust" for it even though daydreaming was never on their list of infractions.

In 1983, I was sent to a psychologist by the name of Dr. Jeff A. Christiansen, PsyD. This was also a total nightmare. When he asked me questions, I tried to answer them to my best ability, only to be accused of lying to him. He also played mind games with me, asking me if I enjoyed the sexual assault. When I told him no, he said, "Ah, c'mon. Not even a little bit? Alot of times those are initiations they that they select only for people that they want in their group." Another was when he called me a "demanding little bastard" because I could not tell someone that I liked them without knowing that they liked me first.

Conclusion

Behavior Modification is a very controversial forms of psychological therapy. It is extremely intrusive. It seeks to manipulate outward behavior through pain, whether it's physical or emotional, or a denial of affirmation (i.e. head games).

The theory is that behavior modification (aka aversion therapy) trains the individual away from unwanted behavior. Most of the people who are sent to these camps are kids who display anti-social behavior. The purpose is to cause them to break down through "organized punishment" so that the therapist can mold them into whatever they want them to be.

Some methods used in behavior modification are electric shocks without anesthetic AKA "bad behavior shocks", vomit inducing injections such as apomorphine which makes the patient violently ill, respiratory paralysis drugs such as succinylcholine, which impedes on the person's breathing while preventing them from passing out.

If a parent is reading this right now, please think long and hard before sending your kid to a behavior modification facility and/or psychologist. When my parents sent me to a psychologist, they believed that any psychologist is a psychologist. That is not true. There are many different psychologists who are experts in different areas. One, of course, is behavior modification, others are experts in PTSD, DID, schizophrenia, criminology, family and marriage counselors, and the list goes on.

Before doing anything, research it in it's entirety before making any rash decisions or commitments of any kind. By doing so, you could very well prevent your own child from the grief and suffering I had to endure.

Sources:

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Shardwolf: The exciting conclusion (Part XIV)

This is the 14'th part of Shardwold's lifestory. All rights goes to the original author who posted this on Livejournal:

Well when i got home and after my stint on the streets, I lived with my sister, and that was pretty cool. We got along fine, and i got a job at the Target near her.

I was doing well for a while, then i met her. Kelly was not exactly a nice person. We actually dated for a while and that was cool. I did like her. During the time i was with her, i had lost my job at Target cuz i had another one of my mania deals, and went to go work at my dads pawn shop. That did not work well since it was about 5 hours on the bus daily so i went to go work at Ihop near there. That was good for a while i was doing well i had a girlfriend, my sister on i got a two bedroom apartment.

Then Kelly broke up with me which was not a bug deal it was how she did it. She first had her friends get my to say bad stuff about me, then when i would not, she found some miniscule reason. She wanted it over but could not do it so it was her fault. And in all reality i was just some toy for her toget f her last ex, which she got back together with, i know this cuz she told me.

That was a lonely depresssing time, i had no friends though i talked to some online, i never went out. I was workign the grave yard shift and that always made it hard to do anything. So outta depreateness and just pure lonliness i slept with a hooker. Thats right i paid a women for sex and did it in my sisters bed. Then i forgot to clean up the wrapper and my sister found it and i was pretty much kicked out.

I went to go live with a room mate and stopped taking my meds. That did not work out too well since she was a pot smoking retard who hot boxed the place with her three year oldkid there. I'm not saying pot its bad its people like her who give pot a bad name. Anyway i got to te point where i was an assistant manager and got to be on the main manager on the grave yard, and i did that for about a month, when the three months of no meds just came down on me. I left right from work and went right to New Mexico. Then I came back. I did not know what i expected but, but maybe go back to the school. Oh well that did not happen so i got home and Heather (my room mater) started fighting, and i was trying to get my job back. Well they did not hire me so i got a job at the i hop near the PV mall, and moved down there in my own place. I decided to start working two jobs, and got fired from Ihop cuz i was late twice. So I was workign at Ruby Tuesdays, then at Olive Garden cuz Ruby Tuesdays was way to slow. Then i decied to go to the Army so i quit Olive Garden and go shipped to Alabamna. Then they found out i was bi-polar and had to be sent back here. Thats when i met you all. Pokey first and slowly the rest.


And that is my story for better or for worse. I have done some bad things on my life, and i have done some good thing, but i am a good person and i am sticking to it.

Source:
The exciting conclusion (The original testimony on Livejournal)