ok, so i've heard a lot about WWASPS on this board and honestly it shocked me. i was in a treatment center from February 2002 to November 2002. It was Island View RTC in Syracuse Utah. i really was out of control and my parents did have no other choice. yeah, kids were occasionally restrained, but only when they were freaking out (like throwing punches or running away or something) it always scared me because i had bad memories of seeing takedowns in a hospital. however, no sexual abuse occured nor verbal abuse and the only physical abuse occured when someone was out of control. the food was decent (think college food) and the therapy and school was amazing. it honestly changed my life and i don't think of myself as brainwashed. yeah, parts of it did suck since we could only write people our parents approved and only talk to our parents a certain number of times a week (depending on our level) they did sort of moniter phone calls but i never had any problem criticizing the program on the phone. i could tell my mom that i had the flu and that the food sucked sometimes or that i was upset about something. and letters were always delivered unopened. there were punishments that seemed severe but i never was placed on any of them. the "time-out" room was on the boys hall and you went there if you flipped out. however, it was just a room and you didn't have to be in any specific position. you could scream in there if you wanted and no one cared. they had something called IF (Individual Focus) that your therapist could put you on if you weren't cooperating and then you had to sit at your desk and have your food and schoolwork delivered to you and you couldn't talk to anyone. depending on your level, you could talk to different people. on orientation, explore, and apply you could only talk to your teammates (18 to 24 people of the same gender) on impact you could talk to all people of your gender and test guys. on test you can talk to anyone. the worst program was team focus. that's if a big scandal happened on a team and then the whole team couldn't talk and had to sit at their desks. my team was the only one that wasn't put on it during my 9 months there. so yeah, i guess some aspects of it sucked, but it is treatment. i dunno, i see it as a positive experience where i made a lot of friends and it saved my life. i plan to return to be an intern when i'm 18. honestly, i kinda miss it, but i think that's just cuz of the people... so maybe :wstupid: but it's how i really feel.
