Book Post 2

In this portion of the book, the main character, James is living in the home. Numerous times he vomits from his withdrawal symptoms. James is given a test to take to help make a treatment plan. It his five hundred some questions, all true or false. James answers all but one, are his sins forgivable. James is then given a task to clean the toilets. He vomits and then starts working on his chore. After he is finished, one of the leaders challenges him about the quality of his work. James gets angry and throws the leader around in front of all the patients. Later James is confronted by the psychiatrist and another worker. James fights with the worker immediately and the psychiatrist asks to speak to him alone. He offers his help and James accepts. James makes new friends with the other patients and he goes to visit the dentist. The dentist tells him that he has to have a root canal in two days. After his meeting with the dentist James is given a warm coat and tennis balls to squeeze when he gets stressed. I am starting to question the facts in this book. I have had my own experiences in a rehabilitation program and they were nothing like this. It is true that the people who are in charge do help the patients by giving them medicine to cope with withdrawal and other issues, but I have never been challenged by any of them based on work I have done. I have been challenged about my progress and if I really think I am getting better, but I do not think that I have ever been mocked for my chores. I think that any actions like this can be very devastating to the patient who is already in a fragile state of mind. For me, encouragement was the biggest help. This was the case for many of my friends as well, and I think that this would be true for James as well.