I did not appreciate Susan Nordstrom or Michael Hornstein while I was here but I appreciate them now. I think there are many people who could not look at this place without fear and shame looming in their rearview mirror. I was passed along through the addiction community in many many towns and New Jersey and New York are by far the most supportive.
I am not an alcoholic but this is the way the legal system works nowadays, if you get into a small amount of trouble whatever they just find a way to stick everyone into treatment this ensures a constant chain around your leg. In a divorce situation if there is even a hint of any kind of dependency the other parent uses that approach to get the kids, or to get you thrown in jail and in a whole mess of legal problems that never existed prior to the "divorce".
Let me be very clear about the reality of divorce these days. If one parent wants to destroy the other parents life, career, social status, they can and will over a temporary situation such as custody. It was never made clear to me how many years of my life I would spend cleaning up the mess.
Some of the things that I witnessed throughout my time in "treatment", sexual assault was common, sex among patients and workers, Women using sex as a way to gain favors with people in power(this was in jail). Sexual predators were so common at AA meetings I think they eventually had to break off and form their own groups, I witnessed seven twenty year old girls becoming pregnant in the same year all through the AA system. My ex-husband once tried to have me thrown in prison for taking a picture of our daughter in a bathtub,
I once had a sponsor's husband beat down a bathroom door so he could see me naked in a bathtub, Older males preying on the young women is possibly the most common phenomenom of all of AA. I hear this happens in the LBGT AA community as well with the older preying on the young. I once had to sit through a meeting with a convicted sexual predator who only spoke to me because he thought I was an underage girl. Some of the situations you find yourself in are truly terrifying.
I think I need to therapy to further investigate if I can write this.
THe Alina Lodge was not responsible for any of the things I am mentioning here. They can't monitor local town AA meetings. We have a serious Heroin/ Opiate addiction problem in this country and the things I am talking about are symptoms of using behavior. To be honest, Blairstown, NJ is one of the prettiest towns and I always felt somewhat safe there. read more
