Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform > The Ridge Creek School / Hidden Lake Academy
HLA Facebook Groups
Anonymous:
--- Quote from: "heyehy" ---well you are lucky.
i've had a therapist who claimed to be an admirer of len buccelato.
i've had doctors tell me the wont see me because i smoke cigarettes.
i've had my school tell my mother: "put him on some ritalin, or we will expel him."
i've had one ignorant doctor even tell me (this was outside of HLA, in a liberal area of a liberal northeast state, and i'm really not kidding): "smoking pot will kill you one day. here, have some lexapro and xanax, take this instead of smoking marijuana and it will help you. in the meantime, check into a rehab or go to meetings, or you will be deadinsaneorinjail one day". he even called my mom after looking her number up through the insurance company and asked her if she knew i smoked pot, and that i should be in rehab for it. Im 25 and smoke roughly once a week to deal with anxiety.
--- End quote ---
FML!
(stands for Fuck My Life...www.fmylife.com)
Anonymous:
--- Quote from: "tsktsk" ---in theory, all that you say sounds just fine and dandy.
in practice, it doesnt work.
why? because the level and type of structure at these schools is not SUPPORTIVE, it's OPPRESSIVE. HLA restricts independent thought, speech, and actions. it tries to obliterate any sense of individuality the kid might have, and attempts to mold them into a "Prep" kid. Structure is OK when the individual can do as they please within the framework of the structure. HLA doesnt just provide a framework, they provide an entire identity and force the kids into that.
also parents dont use these programs as a last resort. oftentimes kids get sent away because they just turned 14 and just began experimenting with sex and drugs, and just once was too much for their parents. i got sent away because my mom caught me wake&baking before school ONCE - a week later i was in georgia. i smoked more weed on a weekly basis after leaving the program than i did my entire life before the program. I simply didnt even have the cash on hand to get started on a drug addiction, not to mention an actual "downward spiral". as a matter of fact, most of the kids i knew at HLA were there way before they even started on their downward spiral. they only had the potential of slipping into one in the near future, and their parents were just too scared, ashamed, lazy or stupid to deal with it themselves. These schools are not a necessary evil to help parents with troubled kids as a last resort; programs are just an easy way out for busy, rich, lazy, scared, ashamed, stupid and gullible parents.
also, given the first step of AA is true - that admitting you have a problem is the first step...how could forcing someone into treatment work? especially if rationally the individual does not have a problem; yet is considered to have one just because they smoked a few joints in their life? every AA member knows it's a personal choice to get sober. you cant force someone into it. whether it takes a month or two decades for a teenager to clean up and emerge from a downward spiral doesnt matter, it's all their own choice. no program will change that. only two things can cut short an addiction: a personal choice to do so, or a complete removal of the drugs from the individual's reality (impossible). when it comes to problems like bullemia or self-harm, the issue usually lies with the parents not the kids; in those cases it's often the parents that need to get therapy, not the kids.
and it's perfectly ok if the kids were originally destined for the millitary or streets. at least then they did it to themselves, and it wasn't an institution that screwed them up. I know dozens of kids who were brilliant independent thinkers when they arrived, and turned into robotic marine candidates by the time they left.
--- End quote ---
These posts are better than arguing with theWho. Can you elaborate on this gulag some more? Were you allowed to contact the outside world, for example? How was Hidden Lake Academy structured--a heirarchy with "reformed" detainees granted authority over lower ranking ones, for example? Was group "therapy" forced? What were the punishments if you didn't say what they wanted you to day in "therapy" "?Explain HLA to people who don't understand what it was like. Thank you.
Anonymous:
--- Quote from: "Guest" ---
These posts are better than arguing with theWho. Can you elaborate on this gulag some more? Were you allowed to contact the outside world, for example? How was Hidden Lake Academy structured--a heirarchy with "reformed" detainees granted authority over lower ranking ones, for example? Was group "therapy" forced? What were the punishments if you didn't say what they wanted you to day in "therapy" "?Explain HLA to people who don't understand what it was like. Thank you.
--- End quote ---
im not going to explain HLA to you. explaining HLA would involve writing a three-volume book, something i dont have time for. you are better off sorting through different posts. or maybe i'll string some together sometime soon.
i can answer your specific questions though:
Contact: you were allowed to talk to your parents once a week for up to 20 min, always supervised, often on conference call w/ counselors. letters were allowed at first only to parents, then as the program moves on you can send letters to your extended family, and near the end of the program, your freinds. all letters to family are censored by counselors, all letters to friends are censored by counselors and then parents. we were allowed to watch TV, although usually the kids picked sports. we were only allowed approved magazines and newspapers (anything overly liberal, pro-life, pro-homosexual, pro-drug, sexual or conspiratorial was not allowed). all approved magazines, newspapers, and books were checked by staff and anything not approved would be torn out. there was no internet connection, students are forbidden from accessing the internet both at school and when they go home on vacation. There were supervised trips to AA meetings, community service, amusement parks, and movie theaters.
Hierarchy: staff ruled everything. there were student "positives" that were supposed to "help" the newcomers by being nice and supportive and showing the ropes. students had no power over each other; other than through group punishment. If you were on restrictions and one kid acts up, the entire restriction group is punished with PT (physical training - lots of push ups and sit ups). There was also a minor unspoken hierarchy: some students held more sway with the staff and therefore had more power over other students. there were dorm heads who assigned chores like vacuming, mopping, etc to kids. there were also "honor" groups like phoenix and STARS that were given more priviliges and more trust. that meant that if they tattle on you, even if they are lying, the counselors will always believe them over you. this gave them quite a bit of power - although to be in phoenix or stars you had to be a goody-two-shoes anyway and most of those kids didnt abuse their power. they were just nice.
therapy: it was forced. if you disagree, you go on restrictions. Thats when from the second school ends to the time you go to bed, and all day on the weekends. You stand in line all day and march around. you are forbidden from speaking. if you speak, you either do pushups or you have to carry a rock over your head all day. if that rock falls below your eyebrows, you do pushups and carry the rock for another day. if you keep speaking, they make the whole group do PT. sometimes you do PT anyway - in the mud, the rain, in the heat, in snow, freezing rain, lightning storms, doesnt matter. you walk around and clean up trash all day. you create trails, repair and pave roads, make ditches, do landscaping, cut trees and clear forest, build diversions for the stream, haul dirty laundry, basically any work HLA needs done on the property. if the counselors are feeling nice that day you might be lucky enough to be able to sit inside all day studying or reading a book. also, the person running restrictions for a while was a wannabe drill instructor who treated the kids like cadets and yelled at them till he lost his voice or the kid broke down crying.
there were other punishments too: zaps were for minor offenses, you had to walk around the lake during your dorm time. work assignments, you had to join restrictions for just an hour or two. if you really broke the rules they send you to ridge creek. thats a whole different story.
ask specific question, and you will get specific answers. i'm not going to write you a novel.
Anonymous:
http://wiki.fornits.com/index.php?title ... ke_Academy
RobertBruce:
It sounds like not much has changed. More proof that Buchi has no interest in improving things. Do they still do "interventions" where a kid who really isnt interested in hack therapy is sent out into the woods with a lack of adequte suppplies for an indefinite period?
Do they still do writing assignments while on restrictions. Essentially forcing kids to cop to whatever it is they're being punished for and keeping them on restrictions till they do? I hear they finally did away with the starvation diet they kept us on while on restrictions. At least that's something. Do they still do "fall outs" where you're forced to tell on yourself and others until the counselors hear what they want to hear? I once had a session go on till 3 am.
I've yet to hear how coerced therapy ever helps anyone.
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