LOL. I didn't suggest the parents were getting the nice cash bonus--that goes to the fat cats at the corporations who run the programs, cracking a nice bottle of bubbly and toasting the multi-billion dollar profits they rake in from this industry. The parents, sadly, are getting fleeced.
So what did your parents pay, Suck It?
Well, like I said, I talked to my parents about the program and they never mentioned to me about feeling ripped off. One of them mentioned that it was the best money they ever spent. I don't know exactly how much they spent, but I know it wasn't 100-200k, because our family didn't have that much. They are pretty old fashioned though and don't talk to me about money, and exact figures.
I can address the fact, that one kid being sent to a program isn't going to buy anybody a new house or yacht. Most of the money spent at programs, I imagine goes towards the cost of running the place. When I was in drug rehab the cost was $1,000 a day (this is what they told me at least, I think it might of actually been more) but insurance payed for it. But that wasn't enough for me, and then insurance refused to pay. At the same time my parents realized that a long term solution was probably necessary and so they sought out private programs, and had to pay for it themselves.
At programs you have to pay for the facility itself, the employees, the therapists and other professionals, insurance, and who knows what else. I can't say for sure because I don't run a program, but I do know what it's like to run a business, and just because prices are high, it doesn't mean that is all going into the pocket of the owners. I would guess that the profit margin on running a treatment facility is very thin. I wholeheartedly believe, based on my own interactions with the higher up types, that they did it because they really felt good helping kids out. I think it would be their mission to do this, whether they made money or did not. To me, it struck me as the point of the whole thing was to keep it going, to keep the door open. We have seen a lot of programs going out of business recently due to the economy. I think this fact shows that these people are not popping the champagne cork on their new yacht, on the way to a villa in Italy. I think this could actually fall under my other thread about fornits mythology. From an anti treatment perspective, it helps to view them as greedy, rich and corrupt people. In my view they are just the opposite.
The narrative on fornits goes something like this. Poor widdle parents find a scary internet site telling them their child is troubled. These naive yet good hearted parents call the program, and the evil program salespeople convince these gullible, yet ironically well off financially, people, that their kid will die if they don't send him. These parents being the trusting, naive people that they are, do exactly as the evil program salesman says. The kid is then warehoused in an abusive jail cell, given minimum food requirements to stay alive and ignored while the rich owners are off sailing in their yacht, laughing all the way to the bank at the naive, gullible, and rich parents they fleeced. Kid gets severe PTSD, gets out and becomes a drug addict who hates their parents and posts on fornits.
When I believe reality is a little closer to something like this. Parents have been dealing with troubled teen for quite some time. They tried therapy, local hospitalization, and everything else. Nothing has worked. They don't know what to do and greatly fear for their teen who has been through several close calls involving the law and their life. They fear another weekend of partying and driving while drunk will result in the death of their kid, or another kid. They have been saving since their children's birth for college, and decide in order to save their life they will spend this money to get them treatment. Parents research and find many opinions on program options. They talk to their kid about it, and then after exhausting all options and doing a lot of research conclude on where to send their teen. Parents drive teen to program and say goodbye while trying unsuccessfully to hold back tears.
Of course to people acclimated to fornits extreme view of reality, this will read as absurd, and the first paragraph will seem much more accurate. I post on fornits because I experienced being in a supposed abusive treatment program, and most of the people who post here on behalf of those who experienced it, do so by distorting the reality of what really goes on, in order to push their anti treatment agenda. I have no agenda other than to offer my own opinions and viewpoints, which I feel represents a more reality based view into what it's really like. I am willing to be honest, about the bad, and also the good. This makes me an outsider to the cult view on this forum that only bad happens in programs. When in reality those that experienced conveniently leave out the good, or anything even close to taking personal accountability for what happened. I do agree parents are victims in all of this, however, victims of their own troubled teen. My parents were victim of my behavior, and they did their best to deal with it. I hated them at the time, but now I can honestly say if they didn't act decisively I would of ended up jail if lucky, more likely would be dead right now.
