Hi. This is Katie's dad.
I just wanted to put one quick note here, and that will be all. This is her story, from her view, in her words. It is not mine - and there are events that I remember quite differently myself. Katie has a great talent for writing, and it is definitely coming out here. I've told (and am telling) my side in my blog (http://parents-of-a-troubled-teen.blogspot.com/) - I'd actually recommend that Katie set up a blog there to post to instead of a thread in a bulletin board.
There are at least two sides to every story - this one is Katies.
It could be a good idea if her story ended up in a blog.
Of course there is two sides of the story. How is it Dr. Phil is saying "
As thin as you can make a pancake, it still have two sides".
She is going through a heal-process right now. She is writing things as she saw them. She was the one who was removed from her family and placed in a restricted environment where she could not communicate freely as her letters were edited before they were sent. She has extended family. She could not reach out to them. She had friends - few but they existed, but she could not reach out to them for support.
She needs to come to closure with all the anger and frustration she has built up in her before the program, during the program and of course after the program where she has experienced difficulties adjusting to real life.
In the other thread, you mention her lack of motivation to get up from bed and to engage in exercise. Working in an environment where the issue of depression is handled on an everyday basis, I recognize the symptoms. While it should be treated she needs to come to a point where it can be treated, because the most important illness she needs to cope with right now is the
posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) she as many people got when she returned from the intense environment Cross Creek is. While it for some reason has become a state-license facility the nature of the environment for students are very intense. They have to be 100% aware not to break rules because there are so many of them and the consequences are so severe. There is no room to be relaxed. They are on alert 24/7. You can compare it with soldiers in a war. If they relax they can become victim of a road side bomb. If you doubt that the internal environment are more intense than you have experienced during the doctored parent visits, then ask yourself why
people would rather be in jail than at one of the programs.
She is dealing / treating herself from the PTSD through her writing. Once she has written her story and this burden is away, in due time she would be ready to battle the depression she according to my analyze of both your blog and her story got when she became verbal weapon in the divorce war between you and your ex-wife. She will write things you don’t like in this process. You will properly feel that some of the things she writes could be written as an attack on you, but I don’t feel it that way. She is the one who are asking people to back off from you.
If she discontinues her story, how will she try to overcome her problems? If you google our
datasheet on their former Samoa program, you will discover the trial based on the murder in
Coral Gables. Let her choose a verbal way of removing her burden rather than a physical.
I don’t know how this story will end. Maybe maybe as new
Comeback book, which I guess you have already on your bookshelf.