Anon: Personally, I'd much rather read about those that got over their pity party and learned about some very wonderful parts of themselves.
Then why are you here? Pity party? Catchy. I've read lots of posts over at struggling teens and it seems to me that the parents know how to hold a damn good pity party themselves, group style. And THEY are the adults, which doesn't seem to mean much these days.
Anon: If brainwashing, mental abuse, etc. is your concern, then think about this:
Mind control involves hypnosis - so if all these programs want the kids to be compliant, then why not do a mass hypnosis?? Then ALL the letters home would be full of fluff, they would happily follow all the rules and come home like little robots.
Mind control does not necessarily involve hypnosis. From the moment we're born our conditioning begins. Every moment of every day defines who one becomes. Every interaction, every observation, every suggestion.
Mind control is most successful when someone is cut off from all they know and thoughts are drilled into their minds continuously with no reprieve. They are literally a captive audience. And when you add the element of abusive- well, that's a fertile environment for mind control.
Most of the letters my son sent were fluff. Nothing real, nothing personal. Who wants to share their innermost feelings when every word is being judged and analyze and the wrong gesture can land you in restriction with even less privelges? He only said what they allowed him to say. And always something therapeutic. How he had come to realize that he needed what they had to offer. That's how you win browny points, stay out of trouble and inch your way back to the real world. You must mimic the required rhetoric to get out. Letters that hinted of anything real or honest were rejected by the monitors.
One of the few things I agree with Dr. Phil on is that "we teach people how to treat us". That goes for parent/child relationships as well.
Regarding getting "only what you are willing to put into it". That's absolutely true of parenting as well. It's unfortunate that so many kids have parents who aren't willing to put more into the job they volunteered to do. We reap what we sow. Unfortunately, the teens are put away to serve time for their parent's ignorance and shortcomings.
Anon: Here are some links that are written by Real Teens, Real parents and Real staff - Another side that I don't see on this site. I'm sure you have plenty of sensationized articles by reporters, so I just want to add another side.
As if the folks who post here are not "Real"? Personally, "I'd rather not read" the musing of how successful their mind control was. These kinds of posts exist all over the internet. Are you program parents, who have been posting here as of late, feeling threatened. Well, notice that you can post here. Not true in the reverse. You won't find "our side" at any of your sensational message boards which limited parents exposure to "your side"....another form of mind control, you brainwashed turd.
Deborah
