I was sent to Aspen in the Summer of '08 and didn't return home until the spring of '09. I did not graduate. In fact, I was shipped somewhere else to finish my program days as I proved to be too much for Aspen's unqualified staff to handle. I don't mean that in a spitfire sort of way; I'm not usually a problem unless provoked. But therein lies the problem, we were always being provoked. Not all of Aspen's staff is terrible, but it's hard to find the few decent ones buried under the rubble that was Loa, Utah. I was only belittled to my face on a handful of instances, but it was the way in which we were dealt with that infuriated me.
My very first day at Aspen Ranch was spent on ‘sick bed.’ I was ill due to cocaine withdrawal; that evening a staff called out to me as the ‘bulimic girl.’ Within the first week of my stay at Aspen, I had been forced into bright red suspenders due to my obvious defiance and inability to keep my pants at a respectful place on my waste. Trouble is, Aspen did not have my sized pants when I checked in and I was not allowed a belt due to being a ‘suicide risk.’ Basically, I was humiliated/punished for something I had no control over.
During my stay, we were forced to hall hay and build fences/run-ins for the mustangs out of cedar (I am allergic to both hay and cedar, mind you). I think one of my fondest memories is when all the gold fish in the lake were poisoned (because they were so clearly a nuisance); the water turned purple and hundreds of dead, rotting fish washed up on the bank of said lake. Why would that be a fond memory, you ask? Because, dear friend, we got to pick up those dead fish as punishment one day for being late to an activity – community service, they called it.
They have this beautiful thing called a ‘haircut’ in which you get seated and told everything about yourself that does not meet the standards of those around you. Tell me how being told that you are fat or ugly or a failure, or stupid can be therapeutic?
And school was wonderful, as well. Four to five hours a day of trying to teach yourself geometry out of a packet is what saved me years later when I took the SAT’s, let me tell you.
One day, one of my teammates collapsed and couldn’t breathe. They took her to the ER and it turns out that one of the medications they were forcing her to take had given her blood clots in her lungs. She was away for days. She came back too soon and nearly fainted again that next week. Turns out, her parents had told Aspen that if she was not better by the end of the week, they would be bringing her home and Aspen didn’t like that. No sir, Aspen likes their money coming in steadily so they signed her early release papers and you know what? They had every right to, because when you send your kid to Aspen, you sign over a large percent of your guardianship to them.
Another one of our teammates, who had not been on antipsychotic medication when she came, was forced onto a handful of pills. Turns out, she was allergic to two of them and ended up having a few seizures on the floor of the main room one morning after a nurse accidently overdosed her medication. When she came to, she didn’t know where she was. She kept asking for her mother and, even though she was of level to call her mother (and it was the day in which her level COULD call their parents) they did not let her speak with her parents. She had two more seizures that day and we later found out that her parents were only informed about the very first one. The nurse that gave her too much medication confided in me the next day, saying, “That girl is such a cunt.”
I could go on, but quite frankly I’m getting a migraine just thinking about it. If you want my advice, as someone who has been there, don’t send your child to Aspen ranch.
Do yourself a favor and get the hell out of Aspen Ranch’s money-seeking grasp.
