
My Brother's Keeper - petewailes
http://www.theverge.com/2015/9/2/9240151/trosa-drug-rehab-center-therapeutic-community
======
hindenburg
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.

~~~
ebbv
Yeah seems really unfair to publish this without talking to him. Hopefully she
did.

Also, not to downplay what they've been through, but her brother's
transgressions against the family hardly seem worth kicking him out over. He
pawned some musical equipment and tried to sneak whiskey into his room, and
left a bruise on her arm? For that they permanently kick him out? I realize he
broke into other people's homes and stole from them, and that sucks but he's
also paid for those crimes.

Maybe she's leaving out some things he did, I don't know. But to me this
article reads like she and her parents are harder on her brother than he
deserves. Hopefully it all works out.

~~~
Crito
Allowing a criminal to live in your house puts the whole family at risk. What
if he does something that prompts the police to SWAT him, and by extension
you? And then there is asset forfeiture; people have lost their homes because
their adult child that lived with them got busted with drugs.

If I had a family member that was up to that kind of shit, I might help them
pay rent in a home of their own, but they would not be staying in my home.

------
tthayer
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
([http://www.smartrecovery.org](http://www.smartrecovery.org)).

~~~
j_baker
AA still has its place. A lot of people like its philosophy. Plus, some people
just don't respond to anything else other than its "tough love" philosophy.

------
trhway
hard to add anything:

"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.

"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." "

~~~
protomyth
I'm sure they exist, but I've never met a Drug & Alcohol Counselor that hadn't
been an addict. I guess you see what's at the bottom of the abyss and want to
keep others from falling in.

~~~
baseballmerpeak
You just can't wrap your head around it otherwise. The logical struggle at
understanding the illogical.

~~~
protomyth
Your explanation of D/A Counselors sounds about right. Its strange that
doesn't seem true in the other "helping" professions.

Its weird, I've met a lot of social workers and many are just people good at
helping other people. I've also met social workers that went into social work
to save themselves. They were more screwed up then anyone they would likely
meet in the course of their work. I think I've met the poster child for "why
you shouldn't go into social work if...".

------
spb
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 -
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synanon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synanon)
(linked in the article) being a nigh-on perfect textbook example.

