Thanks for taking the time to write this out and explain your views. I will share my perspective as well. I found while being at SCL, that the kids who needed help the most (i.e. the kids with real drug, psychiatric and emotional problems) had it the worst, and they were the ones in need of the most help to begin with.
I ended up at SCL when I was 17 1/2, so I had no reason to buy into the program. Even if I had, it would have taken me a year longer than eighteen, and there was no way I could stay until I was 19. So I decided to not work the program. I didn't actively resist and start trouble so much as I just stopped caring and didn't try.
So I ended up in the hobbit a lot, worksheets a lot and got reemed at every seminar I went to. I got to experience the negative of this program first-hand. It didn't effect me quite as negatively as the younger kids, however, and that is what makes me so sad about SCL and the kids who are there.
Those who were older, and more socially adept could work the program, and have a relatively easy time at SCL. The younger kids were not as mature and had a much harder time, and they would receive the full brunt of the punishments. Not just the young ones either, but the really emotionally disturbed ones, who had REAL problems and should never have been sent to a behavior mod facility. IMO, SCL should have had the decency to send them to a psychiatric hospital and help them get better. Instead, they would let them rot in the hobbit for weeks, even months at a time. This is what really gets to me.
SCL feels that you can punish the bad out of a child and force them to comply. This is a horribly flawed ideology in my opinion. This was how mentally ill people were treated before the recent rise of psychiatric medicine. Schizophrenics were wharehoused, treated horribly and expected to get better -- or simply be wharehoused indefinitely. This is the same as WWASP. They pretend modern psychiatric care does not exist, that a modern therapy environment is not helpful, and the old ways work better. Most (if not all) psychological professionals would disagree with their thinking.
As do I. When I left SCL I went to a psych hospital and it was so different from SCL. I was still in the frightened and anxious program mindset, but being there and talking with real professionals who care about you and your well-being helped me realize what real help is. And how SCL lacks it sorely.
So, yes, I think SCL and other WWASP programs should not exist. I, personally am not going to crusade to shut them down -- but in my heart I believe there are better options, and as long as WWASP is out there, parents will be steered away from these more benificial options for their teens.
Yes, I made good friends while I was there, I can take some good from the experience, but it did not do what my parents paid for -- that is, make me better off psychologically or in any other way. I left worse off to be ready for life in the real world, and it took me time just to get back into the normal swing of things in regular day to day living.
I also lost a lot of my inherent trust in humanity, because I personally did experience brutality at SCL. Sure, maybe I shouldn't have chosen out of a seminar to spend time in a hobbit -- but just because I am not comfortable being emototionally torn down in front of a hundreds of strangers, does that mean I deserve to be locked up and given limitd meals and treated so poorly? I don't think so, and I would not wish this on any child, no matter how misbehaived they are.
The children I met at SCL either needed real help, or didn't need to be there at all.
I was physically and emotionally mistreated in SCL and I don't feel I deserved it. It made my life harder when I left, and has taken me several years to recover from and move on. After experiencing many different forms of treatment -- I was in about half a dozen different facilities besides WWASP -- I can honestly say, and believe this with my full heart, SCL is not helpful, and there are so many better options out there, I cannot see a reason for a parent to choose to send their child to a WWASP program. Modern psychiatric and therapeutic care is a much better treatment ideology than the old 'lock em up and scare the devil out of them' philosophy. I've lived both, and feel I have a right to make that distinction.
Thanks for sharing your experience. I am sincerely glad it was positive. I feel your pain about not being able to contact friends. I made two of my best friends ever while at SCL, and haven't heard a word since the day I left. And I probably never will. Closure of this whole incident might be easier to come by if otherwise. Until then... these forums are the best I've found. :smile: