No kid is going to escape emotional abuse at a WWASPS program. It's the very structure of the program, to modifty the behavior of the child through severe means of punishment, and using simple everyday conveniences as the reward (shoelaces, food condiments, ability to talk to others, etc). The constant living under fear is a given to a program like this, they drop kids for no reason and you are talking serious time. It was standard practice to drop a kid from level three for a stpuid reason, they did it to everyone. It took a couple months to get there. They just want to reinforce that you know you are at their very whim, and you have to do a better job sucking up/bullshitting them, or maybe you really fell for it and glazed over already. They tease you with parental phone calls, and use that to fuck with you even more emotionally. They get you to the point you would do anything just to hear somebody, anybody from the real world let you know they know you even exist, let alone give a shit about you. I have to say the emotional abuse and toll from that is probably more severe than any physical abuse that could take place. It's just really fucked up mind games, total control and a complete cult like environment, totally insane.
As far as physical abuse, it wasn't lacking. It's not like they had a torture room where they brought the youngest most innocent students to put splinters under their nails. The abuse happens when something goes down, and the staff have to deal with it and do the best they can, it's kind fo the same at high school. The difference is, the environment breeds freakoutst, and that means takedowns. Lots of takedowns. Lots of kids freaking out, screaming and having nervous breakdown type of symptoms. Or maybe they tried to get ina fight or something. But mostly it was when kids received a devestating letter from home, or after a therapy session where they were told they have to spend another year there. That's when bad shit happens, when you are already pushing a kid to the edge of their emotional limits and then you hit them with a ton of bricks. I thnk they did this on purpose. They did it to me. I was planning on leaving at 18 and all that, and made the mistake of telling a few people, and kept telling the facility that I planned on staying in the 18 yr program to avoid the inevitable pressuring and intense blackmail that they use to get you to stay.. its very intense. They drove me to a nervous breakdown the day I said I was going to leave. Its a long story but that kind of mental tinkering and no holds bar emotional attack is standard practice at WWASPS programs. WWASPS programs are like a twisted twilight zone therapeutic nightmare dreamed up by a psychiatrist gone made.
So yeah phsyical abuse, mostly in the hobbit where nobody could see or in worksheets. Isolation, I ended up spending twent something days in isolation over various times but never for more than four days at a time. I saw much worse than i experienced, some other kids spent months up there. The worst was the mental torture though, looking at the eyes and seeing nothing but despair. seeing kids pulling their hair out fro mthe stress. I got taken down what I would say was way too hard, but they had their reasons I guess, I did try to smuggle a pen into isolation to pass the boredom. :roll: But isolation like that is abuse in itself. I was transfered to SCl after several months of being in psychiatric hospitals I was diagnosed with some pretty severe stuff, and while I dont hide behind that stuf at all, I don't think that is the proper way to treat someone by locking them in small room all by themselves for days at a time. All it does is make you want to kill yourself from boredom. Then you just become used to it.
