It will never surprise me the things that will set some people off. I was informed before coming here the first time what to expect as far as no access to your cell phone, wallet and some other things that get put into a safe. That’s also why I didn’t bring any of those things with me the first time and didn’t this time either. I can leave anytime I want, but would have to wait 24 hours to get my stuff from the safe. So I could freely just walk out the door and not have to come back for my stuff if they didn’t have it to begin with. So it seemed to reason that we’d not have any internet access while here.
By accident the XBox they have here was connected to the internet. A fellow addict (guest) figured this out and began streaming YouTube music and a staff member noticed and explained that shouldn’t be possible and it was disconnected.
Boy oh boy, was he ever pissed off. Flipping “the bird” behind staff members backs, skipping group sessions, venting to us about how stupid and unfair it was. He kept doing this even after it was explained the policy was in place after a previous “guest” used the YouTube comments section to schedule drug drops over the fence so he could still use while in treatment. The current guest even started a sort of petition for us to sign demanding the XBox be reconnected to the internet. Ugh.
I will also add that one of the groups I look forward to the most is Music Therapy. A group that didn’t exist my first time through here. The facilitator has a laptop and has to use her cellphone to connect it to the internet to let us pick a song to play for the group and we explain why we picked it. The facility saw how music can tell a strong story and be inspirational and therapeutic and worked around the need to keep us off the internet during our stay. Given all of the above, why would we be surprised when a mistake is corrected?
Out of all the things/rules/policies they have here that may seem silly, stupid or weird, streaming and gaming online and open access to the internet isn’t one of them and a battle against that I just can’t understand.
To each their own, I guess, but I need to remember somethings aren’t worth my emotional state, time or energy on. I think that relates to life in general, even after this place.