Still picking up the pieces of what was broken in me by this program.
The Insight Program Survivor: 2017 - 2019
this was my personal first incident of many of sexual abuse, coercion or harassment in the program that wasn’t punished or handled. I was forced to share about my prior assaults in excruciating detail, including being made to think of my part to blame for them.
Staff Survivor Story
The Insight Program Staff Survivor Story: 2015 - 2019
I joined the group when I was 16. For the first couple of years, it seemed like my salvation. It felt like after years of trauma and abuse I had finally come home. For the first time, I felt like I belonged and I fell head over heels for that feeling. I had spent almost every day of the last 5 years not wanting to wake up the next morning and now it felt like my world had filled with color again. I did whatever I wanted and had hundreds of friends who all loved me, just so long as I complied with the rules and expectations imposed on me.
Insight might actually breed drug addicts instead of helping them.
The Insight Program Survivor Story: 2018 - 2021
My story is similar to everyone else’s who dealt with the horrors of Insight. I joined when I was 17. I was only smoking weed (never really touched anything else) when I started the outpatient program. By the time I finally left the group for good, there was about 6 new drugs added to my list. Was it my choice to do them? Yes. I almost feel, however, that insight might breed drug addicts instead of helping them.
An Open Letter to Current Staff
I wanted to reach out to let you know that you can walk away from the program today. I assure you nothing I write here is meant to harm or cast judgement on you as an individual; I’ve been in your shoes. You are not “fucked up” for exploring this message, you have every right to hear this, to ask questions, to challenge your own thinking. I know you don’t think you’re in a cult, I certainly did not when I was there.
Topher Bayless Tells All
A Crossroads Program Survivor and Insight Program Outpatient Counselor tells his story of being a Group member, going to The Meehan Institute of Counselor Training, and becoming an Enthusiastic Sobriety Counselor. Topher spent 12 years in the Enthusiastic Sobriety Cult and has plenty to say about Bob Meehan, mind control and undue influence.
Synanon and Enthusiastic Sobriety
A conversation with David Cherry. He spent 15 years under Enthusiastic Sobriety's undue influence and mind control, which is a cult disguised as a drug treatment program.
Enthusiastic Superiority
It would be nearly impossible to discuss all of the ways in which the program views itself as better than the remainder of the world. While elitism is fundamental to any cult, it’s a trait of Enthusiastic Sobriety that often goes unnoticed by parents, who are so desperate to save their children, that they inadvertently hand them over to an institution that will likely damage them.
Steering Committee Purpose
The Insight Program Survivor Story
Four of us were on Steering Committee; myself and my roommate were the two females and there were two males. Before a Purpose, I had felt the energy shift with Steering Committee and the counselors - that my roommate was ‘not healthy’ or ‘not being honest.’ And before she arrived I recall Staff giving us a heads up in what was coming and how and what could we contribute about her being ‘fucked up.’
A Personal Account of the Program’s Approach to Sex and Sexual Orientation
The program not only intrusively dictates the sex lives of their clients, but has proven itself to be particularly unloving toward those who are LGBTQIA+. It is a cultural issue that can not be reduced to a few examples of bad counseling. It is clear that they see no reason whatsoever to change this.
Exposing Enthusiastic Sobriety Programs
The Insight Program Survivor Story: 2004 - 2006
Mark from Talk Beliefs hears Liz's story of her two years inside an Enthusiastic Sobriety facility, where prejudices, magical thinking, and bizarre judgments were the order of the day.