Lots of food for thought.

Pamela, you are absolutely right in that the treatment is usually different in different countries.

That gave me the idea that maybe, for me, it has to be 2 things.

1) a book about my own story, with focus on everything "local", in my own language, with real names of places, facilities etc.*

2) distilling a story from that which is more "international" or universal, translated into English, so that we could bundle it with stories from Icehouse, Kiwi and everyone who feels up to it. It would be great if it includes the perspective of a "significant other" too - and maybe that could even be the narrator that introduces the stories and puts them into perspective. You have just been volunteered!

Just thinking out loud. I had been struggling with the language aspect for a good while. Dutch is a very small language, yet the local aspect is very important if the writings are to be useful for people here. English is the more universal language, but then I can't really talk about some of the specifics. As an example, in English I would first have to explain the workings of our health care system etc. which would mean people fall asleep after 10 pages.

But the idea of a bundle of stories, available together, correctly edited and formatted, as a resource (online?) would be huge I think. Sure, we have this thread, and Pamela's , but that is not the same. A properly edited book - even if it were to be freely available online, which would have my vote - would be much more accessible.

PS: Newstown still visits from time to time. Last time I think he mentioned he was trying out Metanx?

* it would even contain a few "bombshells" that only make sense locally. One is about the son of a politician who used heroine in his room and dealt to others, got ousted by the staff (correctly so, those were the rules, he endangered other patients), and got himself killed in a fight the next day. Only those of us inside knew the real story, the papers never got it. His mother blamed rehab for the death of her son. She stormed into the facility the day after he died, howling as only the mother of a death child can. "YOU KILLED MY SON!" I still get goose bumps thinking about it; it was both unfair, but to her, it made total sense. Perspective... It also made us realise that we weren't in some kind of movie, that it was life & death for sure.

Writing all that down, how it affected us, without being rude or insensitive, is not going to be easy. But it needs to be done.

PS: it wasn't only "heavy stuff". If I were to tell you that one story is about a Jew, a Turkish Muslim, and a white power Neo Nazi who went shopping together in a beat car, and got stopped by the police... you'd think I was taking the mickey. Yet that's exactly what happened. They looked real scruffy and confused after 11 days of rehab (it was their first time out, and they went to a "Stock Americain" - army surplus shop - to buy some boots). Together, yes, as in rehab those political & religious divides pretty much evaporated. The cop could NOT understand that none of them blew positive! (or why they didn't try to murder each other!) When he asked where they came from, and they said the name of the place, he was even more taken aback, because the rehab was mostly known as a psychiatric clinic, a.k.a the "nut house". Even though they had no drivers license between them, they didn't even get a ticket and were free to go.