Drugs, prison, escaping a cult, building a donut empire by treating employees well-- Strange Donuts' Jason Bockman tells how he developed his life & business philosophy.

Lets also note:

Older group (OG) consisted of a number of younger groups funneling in to older group. West county group, south county group, st.charles group, and Washington group(probably the smallest). At the height of west county, the group consisted of 300+ members just in west county. It was also not un common for people to transition to OG relapse and go into out patient. This division in OG also means the group was getting too big taking in new members and all those groups combined. Probably due to space being an issue, like I mentioned before. To say the majority of their work doesn't come from younger group...is well, against what they claim at least. You can check their website for that.

Insurance: you're correct that insurance didn't cover it, MOSTLY, I have heard of rare occasions where it did. However, the idea being planted that it might be covered DID exist, then parents were left to figure out how to pay for it to help with their kid's DISEASE. They did not help an anyway with the paperwork so I know they themselves did not get insurance to pay for it. This too happened in older group as I said, during transition relapses did happen and reentry(while still being paid for by the parent) did happen. Also new OG members had parental assistance, this was done through the counselors convincing them to do so....and getting your parents to buy you smokes.

Yes DH did graduate in YG, this was extremely rare and uncommon. If I remember correctly he was a bit rebellious no? Something that gets looked down on quite a bit in there. Also part of the manipulation and control there.

More importantly, whether you've had a better experience than most I don't believe its in good taste (especially not listening to the podcast) to try and bash what somebody views their experience to be.Something thats obviously a part of their life they felt was one of their struggles. I come across a few people who share your opinion and I always find it strange how they act towards people who've had a less than positive experience with it. Telling people its not a cult when being out and still having to tell people that, just seems a little cultish.....why not let them have that view instead of defending something you're not and trying to belittle somebodies opinion of their experience. Especially for a group that probably doesn't even talk to you anymore.

/r/StLouis Thread Parent