Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform > Brat Camp

Typical Day at Sagewalk

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Anonymous:
Can I make a suggestion - please take the Ed Consultants advice from who they are; they are not "Doctors" they are their to serve a purpose (most often their purpose of drumming up business for themselves) they all refer to the same "troubled teen, or struggling teen" programs, to TBS or Wilderness, much less regulated that real Residential Treatment Center's or Residential Schools.  They are not your long term therapists - your family therapists - and most often are recently just in the picture.  I am not saying they are all bad in general but I have a real problem with an Ed Consultant giving theraputic or parenting advice - does this person even have children of their own?
Buyer Beware is my new theme!

Anonymous:
'Sorry, I don't understand what you mean by "trepanation." And as for giving him "speed," we relucantly agreed to try Adderall to help him with his ADHD. We had fought the idea and refused it for years. He says it is helping him with his concentration; his teachers see a difference too. I wonder if we had tried it earlier on if he would have then felt more success at school and then would not have turned to the drug-using, outcast crowd he has been hanging with. I would very much prefer he not be on any meds., but try to find an alternative -- we have spent a lot of time and effort trying to find other ways through alternative therapy, etc. and there's just not a lot out there, at least where we live. We finally think we have found some good people to help him. If you could have seen our son before he was being helped with meds. for his anxiety disorder, you would not be so quick to criticize/generalize about giving kids medication. He was a wreck.
I think it's important to respect that there are different solutions for different situations; just as wilderness camp is not the answer-all for every troubled kid, medicating your child is not always a bad decision if it's used in conjunction with productive therapy. Please don't throw stones...we're trying our best to do what's right for our kid and our situation.

Anonymous:
Thanks for your kind wisdom. I do agree that the threat of inpatient treatment (even though we are not presenting it as a "threat," but rather more intensive "help,") may be currently deterring him from use but is not helping him in the long run.
From what we have learned from family group, we have to create a safety net where he knows that he will have us there for him even if he slips up. I have to keep that in mind. We realize too that it IS ultimately up to him to make a lifelong commitment to sobriety...but as parents we are still in the "we can fix it" mode...but we try to remember the three Cs...we didn't cause it, we can't control it, and we can't cure it. Agggghh. It's tough.

Deborah:
While you may be seeing some 'positive' effects from Adderall, you should be aware that there are potentially some long-term negative effects to his health.
My sister relented and put her son on Adderall in order to get other services for him- a quieter place to study/test. He was on it during the school year for a couple of years, and only during the week. He ate very little during the week, binged and puked all weekend. He is now having neuorlogical problems- severe, blinding migrane headaches that send them to the ER. I personally wouldn't consider this a 'solution'. It is just as damaging as if you were giving him small amounts of Cocaine on a daily basis. You can read more on the topic and consider some effective options in this thread:
http://fornits.com/wwf/viewtopic.php?to ... art=0#5474
Search WWF for ADHD for more info worth considering.

There are studies that indicate that keeping a child at home and working as a family is more effective. Here's one:
http://fornits.com/wwf/viewtopic.php?to ... =110#31298

I think TSW has given some good advice in terms of developing a fun and supportive relationship with your child. I particularly appreciated his use of humor to defuse a potentially volatile situation:
http://www.fornits.com/wwf/viewtopic.ph ... &forum=9&0

I think teens grow weary of all the seriousness around them. It's amazing how cooperative they become when situations are infused with a little humor. Common sense leading questions can also help them arrive at more constructive choices, and no resentment toward you for having lectured or demanded.

Anxiety = fear. What factors in your son's life could be causing fear or insecurity?

Anonymous:
Do you ever think your son might be smoking marijuana to help control his anxiety on his own?

Okay, this is going to seem completely politically incorrect but I will say it anyways. Did you ever think that adderall might be worse for him than marijuana is?

It really bothers me when drug counselors, or society in general will call you a 'drug user' for smoking marijuana, but taking adderall and similar medication is called just that, medication.

Marijuana is not a drug, it is a plant-- in it's God given natural form. You can even receive a prescription for marijuana now in 10 [maybe 12 now?] states.

Alcohol is a drug, meth and cocaine are drugs. These are physically addictive and pose much more risk to the average user of these substances than marijuana ever will.

I am not suggesting everyone tell their kids to go smoke pot, but what I do hope is that parents will eventually realize that villifying pot has negative consequences they never intended. I have met people afraid to touch pot, and have no problem downing 8 beers a day for years non-stop. People who think 'E' is safer than pot, etc. This is all due to the governement propoganda over the decades, and this generation of parents have taken it to heart. They actually believe marijuana is dangerous for some reason.

My point? Smoking pot is not life threatening, it is life enhancing. People smoke pot for a reason, because it helps. Unlike prozac, buspar and similar drugs, pot actually works- and doesn't have any nasty side effects. Other than possibly eating too many oreos!  :lol:

[/end rant]

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