wired in

[stumps]

I am a frequent browser on wired in. While I agree with a lot of what is posted on there with relation to people being able to move forwards I am finding it more and more suspicious with some of the posts.

There seems to have been a burst of people saying they have found recovery through CRI. Now I might be a tad cynical but it has been alleged that this company have a policy of promoting them selves in every forum they can. Except this one ironically.

Does anyone else find it a bit odd that Wired In has become a bit of a sounding board for 12 step and CRI.

Is recovery only found by 12 steps?

I was always taught about the 13th step which is run like hell. But maybe I am missing the point.

[sapphire]

Mcdermott did say (it's on a thread on here somewhere) that CRI staff has been caught posting on there "sockpuppeting" as users in recovery, so that might answer the question!!

Some of the posters on Wired In are pretty good and accepting that abstinence doesn't work for some people, but unfortunately they are in the minority.
The guy that runs the site (David Clarke) and the moderator (Michaela) are open minded about OST and have been very supportive to me.

The 12 steppers do seem to be the loudest though, and then you have the guy from the NTA who, whatever people's problem is, his answer is always "get to a meeting/do more meetings". I find this totally at odds with what the NTA should stand for, which is evidence based treatment.

The main gripes I have with TSF is that they are not at all inclusive as regards people on OST, which, whether they actually mean to or not, does send out the message that being on OST is not being in "real" recovery. That and the NA meetings I attended both had a host of sexual predators, who's only motibvation was to try to pick up vulnerable women (or men I suppose?).

I always thought the 13 step came from one of the AA founders sleeping with women who came to the group looking for support? Or that's what I read on Wired In anyway!!

I did try blogging on there (Wired In) to try to put over a more balanced view, so that there was an OST friendly POV, but it got so damn tiring with people telling me I was in denial/not in recovery/ill/lacked courage etc ad nauseum that I just found it too much. If there had been other people that were on OST posting, or supporting OST as a concept, perhaps I wouldn't have had the barrage of what was basically abuse from the 12 step brigade, but as I was the only one, I gave up.

I do still post on there, but find it so tiring having to constantly defend my decisions in recovery, and having my character/support system assasinated that it's just too much work to post more then the odd comment.

Shame really, because there are some good people on there, it's just that they get drowned out by the zealots.

[stumps]

i do find the chap from the NTA a bit zealous at times.

I tried to respond to a couple of comments but got bounced.

i have always enjoyed the 13th step as explained to me was that it means to lead your life free from drug services and the mantra of once an addict always an addict.

Mind you the program is never wrong.If it goes wrong it is your fault for not doing it properly.

While not wishing to demean people who find it useful there is more than one way.But then again my higher power has always been Homer Simpson so what would I know.

[OP8S]

I have upmost admiration for Sapph & the amount of time she has spent defending OST & evidence based research on the wired in site, often in the face of quite un-educated & downright impolite responses from substance users who aren't even old enough to have suffered from a chronic addiction.
When I first became aware of the site I started posting with post's of a similar nature to Sapph's as it appeared that the site really only catered to their own point of view. Stupidly enough, I assumed that open discourse from parties coming from both sides of the fence ( as the alliance allows ) was their intent & possibly something of a positive nature could come of it.
My first few posts were quite long, well thought out & from personal experience. In fact one poster even re-considered their position after a lengthy debate & admitted that they were a bit out of their depth, the * facts * I had informed them about were indeed true, not just personal opinion.
I carried on for some time posting on the site, with my personal experiences & my own views that I hold.
I never once posted anything impolite or attacked another poster's own views. I was even asked once by the moderator to give advice to somebody entering treatment.

Over the course of time I became increasingly frustrated with the fact that I may of sat in front of the laptop for many hours only to find that my posts never saw the light of day, for no other reason than they did not support abstinence for all. Should people want to live a life of abstaining from any particular substance then that is their own business, who am I to criticise ? There are substances which I would abstain from using, though there are substances which I enjoy using & cause no harm to anybody. This point of view obviously didn't follow the party line & as Derek pointed out, wiredin is a site not aimed with people who hold similar views to me. It soon became clear to me that it wouldn't of mattered if I was to present the site with posts advising every user throughout the UK to pay the thousands of pounds charged by Detox-5, or any of the other blatantly advertised money making concerns. I felt that I had been put on some sort of blacklist, one which several other people from the Alliance have felt has been applied to them.

Anyway, their loss. I no longer have to wonder whether my post will be deemed appropriate to make it onto the board & best of all I no longer have to look at the money-grabbing advertisers logos, which made me feel quite ill.
I am glad that Sapph still fights for the cause & percevieres in the face of many ugly responses made by the shiny happy recoveree's, but do wonder whether ( no offence Sapph ) if she is the token OST / MMT user on the site, just so that they can say they're providing view's from both sides of the coin.

Things may have changed ?? But I do not have the time to write a post that will just get filed under "B" for bin.
The Alliance on the other hand provides all sorts of views on drug treatment & I know that my views will be aired.

[sapphire]

LOL OP, I do often think perhaps I am the "token" person!! They do have (a couple of) other people on OST posting, but they all say that they are only using it in the short term with a view to abstinence, not maintenance.

[OP8S]

I do still occassionally look at the site to see what sapphire99 has been writing ( if I think I can bear looking at all those shameless advertisments from their sponsors ) & am nearly always in total agreement with what you're saying. I can even get quite defencive when I see some of the ugly , un-educated responses that some people post back to "our" Sapph, the jewel of the Alliance !! There would be no point though as it would fall upon Michaela's deaf ears. I do remember a time when a handfull of regular Alliance posters were allowed to post our own opinions, it didn't last for long which is the only reason I think that you are the token person in favour of our right's to be maintained should we want it.
It is a Recovery based site after-all ( I wouldn't even refer to it as a forum ), Recovery of the abstinence type & so I can't imagine that they want to be overun by too many people who hold the same views as we do on MMT, even if you are just the token supporter of long-term treatment I have nothing but admiration for your continual use of the site, I just don't have the time ( or the stomach ) to post there anymore. Not that it would make any difference if I was to post as the last 7 or 8...dunno how many posts have just been ignored, for as far as I can see no other reason that I think MMT should be a treatment option.
Keep up the good fight on the behalf of all us other posters who now appear to be blacklisted !
 

[sapphire]

I think, tbh, I have had just about enough of it. I'm fed up with having to defend my position all the time, like somne people think I've taken the easy option by being on OST.

Some of the posters on the site are very knowledgeable and also recognise the value of OST, but unfortunately there are always the more zealous vocal few who feel they have to shout "unclean, unclean" at anyone not in abstinence based recovery. 

The thing that bugs me, I suppose, is that a lot of people read the site and I hate for people to get a view of recovery that only offers abstinence as the solution.

[stumps]

I do feel there is a lack of balance on there and ironically they talk about us and them and only an addict knows an addict.Of course you have to be there sort of addict doing their sort of recovery.

It is always ironic that people who preach about addicts being individuals will invariably be the same people who know best for all addicts.

it is like the person who say i am not racist but.......