On 2004-06-03 08:40:00, Sara-1984 wrote:
"
On 2004-06-03 08:19:00, TimeBomb wrote:
"This will probably be thrown out of court. They went in the locker (without a warrant) and found nothing. Then they used some drawings and crazy writings to search the house (for drugs).
I don't see what the fact that he had sex with a girl 2 years younger than him has to do with any of this.
What does this have to do with the Troubled Parent Industry anyway?
"
My mistake - I thought the kid was 16.
I REALLY need meet my US RDA of caffeine before I jump in.
:roll: Puh-leeeeze :roll:
Parents need to think for themselves - bottom line...
But then again, as I said before - these are also viable symptoms. How many viable symptoms does one rationalize before one is in complete denial?
"
Good question.
It's the difference between "Medical Students' Malady" and real mental illness.
When people are studying to be doctors or shrinks, they often mistakenly imagine they or their friends and family have every new disease they're studying that week.
The reason is that nobody's completely normal, everybody (in mental health terms) is the "walking wounded."
So they warned us about that at the front of my abnormal psych. textbook, and the first thing they did in the first chapter was set out where and how you draw the line between normal quirks and an actual mental illness.
Some of the major ones I remember is that the behavior is *vivid*---it stands out from the behavior of peers and the others just randomly walking around in life.
The person is clearly *suffering*---it is not a situation or behavior that the person is clearly happy as a clam with.
The symptoms/problem substantially interfere with or damage one or more major life activities.
The book had a list of about a half a dozen criteria like that, and someone didn't need to meet *all* of them to have a problem, but they *did* need to meed a significant number of them.
That's one of the reasons disorders defined in the DSM usually list a whole pack of symptoms and then say to be diagnosed with the disorder the patient has to have X or more of the symptoms in Y period of time.
A whole hell of a lot of these poor teens are being institutionalized for the equivalent of medical student's malady. The people pushing these BM facilities put up a random list of alleged "symptoms" that adequately describe that horrible syndrome clinically known as "adolescence"---and then they tell the parents that the place they recommend can "help."
And then when the kid comes out two years later with some improvement, the parents gush about how much this or that school "helped" their kid. So do some of the kids, until the PTSD kicks in.
And neither the parents nor the kid take into account how much of the terrible disorder "adolescence" would have been cured by warehousing the child anywhere OR just keeping him/her at home and *waiting*---for a year or two.
See, that's the thing about adolescents----give 'em a year or two and it makes a huge difference in behavior no matter *where* they are.
"The Program" and two years will get you a vastly improved kid in *EXACTLY* the same way that "The Program" and four bucks will get you a cup of espresso at Starbucks.
Gee, for an encore, why don't we sell ten year old girls a "magic" ring that is guaranteed to make them grow breasts within five years *OR YOUR MONEY BACK!*
The "Teen Help" industry is a *disgusting* scam for swindling parents out of the college savings they've accumulated for their offspring-----as well as the equity in their home and their retirement savings, if they're *real* suckers.
Timoclea
