I'm a 16 year old and I think I need to check myself in to a

[Anonymous]

I'm a troubled youth.  My parents are very disappointed with me.  I think that the best thing in the world for me to do is to check myself in and have my parents pay a wwasp facility to help me.  I want to llive and I am certianly not living today the way I am.  I will see you teenhelp people when I return. There is no other way to help myself. My cousin is a recent TB grad and he is doing so well with himself.  I want to do well too.

[Anonymous]

you are a whacko

[Antigen]

Then just do well too. There is no magic in these programs. They just break people down, induce Stockholm Syndrome and then send them out as walking PR ads for as long as the effect lasts. It's all about breaking the will of children who don't have a desire to change.

Here's how they do it:
http://fornits.com/anonanon/docs/wwasp/toc.htm

You'll want to read that carefully before diciding that WWASP is the place for you.

If you're in a rut and unable to pull yourself out, why not ask your parents to send you to a different school (just a school, not a lock-down facility) or to go hike the Appalachian Trail or go fishing or enter an apprenticeship program or some other change of set and setting that might give you some time away and a little independence. It'll be a lot less expensive and a lot less harmful to all involved.

Either way, if you want a better life for yourself that what you've got now, you're going to have to do the work to improve your life. Your choices are between doing it with or without a lot of humiliation and abuse. I think it's much easier to do it without all the humiliation and abuse.

Society in every state is a blessing, but Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.
--Thomas Paine

[kaydeejaded]

bullshit

just not even buying it sorry

Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul alike.
-- John Muir

[sammiegirl]

On 2003-10-27 12:56:00, Anonymous wrote:

"I'm a troubled youth.  My parents are very disappointed with me.  I think that the best thing in the world for me to do is to check myself in and have my parents pay a wwasp facility to help me.  I want to llive and I am certianly not living today the way I am.  I will see you teenhelp people when I return. There is no other way to help myself. My cousin is a recent TB grad and he is doing so well with himself.  I want to do well too."

I always hate to waste my time on posts that I believe are a set up but here goes.....
DID YOU NOT READ THE OTHER POSTS!!??
If in fact you are a real teen and are seeking help my advise to you is to keep looking else where there are plenty of places that can help you and I would suggest that you speak w/your parents, school guidance counselor and anyone else you trust. You can deal with your life if you choose to do so. But once you put yourself in harms way ie...wwasp ect. You are going to have more problems than before you went in. Unfortunitly Those places look good from the outside, they design it that way. From the other side of the door though you have lost all part of your person and you will lose what sanity you have left. LOOK AT THE STRAIGHTS OR SEED OR ELAN ARCC EA AND EVERYONE OF THOSE PEOPLE HAVE BEEN THROUGH A SIMILAR PROGRAM. Do you realy want to put yourself through that for the next 20 30 40 years.

If you are just an instigator and looking to rial people up well then BITE ME

[Antigen]

I'm sort of inclined to think this is a put on too. But then, remember that one gal who died after voluntarily signing herself up for a wilderness trek type program? It can happen.

If it is just some joker pretending, I figure they're looking for us to say "Duh... whut? I don't know. What should a kid do?" But they forget that most of us program vets are as old as they are, if not older. Most of us have teenage kids and some of us are grandparents already.

In real life, when my daughter was floundering, I didn't put her in a program or turn her over to the law. I just kept counting heads, putting on more pork chops and keeping the door open. I wish I'd done some homework ahead and known of all the options a kid really has before my daughter quit asking for my advice. The younger ones, I think, almost always benefit from the mistakes and oversights we make on the first try.

At the bottom of it, I wouldn't give any different advice to a kid looking for direction than I would to a parent considering sending their kid off to a gulag for repair.

May your days be joyfully challenging and your words artfully true
-- Ginger Warbis SMA, `00

[Deborah]

Hey Sweetie,
Go read my post in this thread:
http://fornits.com/wwf/viewtopic.php?to ... um=9#23852

and see if it makes any sense to you. If it does, make your parents read it.

What are your passions? If you could choose "ANY" (constructive) thing(s) to do every afternoon/evening, what would it be? First thought. Doesn't matter how unrealistic it is. ANYthing!!! Only requirement, it has to be legal.

What, besides zoning out, gets you high?
If you don't know... it's time to find out.
Life is full of excitement that can be soo fulfilling and won't jeopardize your freedom or your physical well-being.

What is stopping you from pursuing you constructive interests? Haven't figured out what it is?  No money?   No hope?

Demand that your parents read and act on my message at the above link.
Then, come back and tell us which activities you chose to start experimenting with. There's a fire inside you. Find it. Don't let a program put it out and make you "just another sheeple".

And if your parents won't pay for mentors, then seek them out yourself. Sell yourself into apprentiships, not an F-in program. Find people who will teach you the things that REALLY interest and excite you.

We'll be waiting for your reply. And we won't accept a hopeless, "wah-wah", "I need a program"  cop-out bullshit.

I believe in you. You can find THAT thing. The one that makes you feel good, and brilliant, and creative. Don't let the apathetic adults around you bring you down to their level of hopelessness. It's a waste of your time and life.
Deborah

[Anonymous]

When you say you're "not living the way you are," and you don't say you are addicted to drugs or alcohol, it sounds like you need to at least be seen by a psychiatrist to rule out depression.

If you have used casually, or are sexually active, don't rule out the possibility of depression--a lot of teens with an emerging problem try to self-medicate that way.

IF you have depression, one of these programs won't help you, because they aren't equipped to deal properly with that sort of problem.

IF you have depression, the options most likely to be effective are cognitive-behavioral therapy or anti-depressant medication.  Both can be provided highly effectively on an outpatient basis--meaning without the residential "treatment" of a Program.

See a licensed psychiatrist to rule out depression as a cause of your problems BEFORE you consider a Program.

The initial message sounds like a put on to me, too, but on the off-chance that it's not, anyone saying they're "not living" now needs to be evaluated by a competent professional for depression before trying ANYTHING else.

[Anonymous]

Also, IF you have a problem with drugs or alcohol the program is not equipped to help you with that either.

Judy

[Anonymous]

Go ahead and check yourself in you punk kid and then I'll see your posts on the fornits site in a few years.  Guess you want to experience it AND it probably will "cure" you too.   Go ahead, make my day...I wish you the ultimate torture.  Serves you right!

[ehm]

On 2003-10-27 16:19:00, kaydeejaded wrote:

"bullshit



just not even buying it sorry

Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul alike.
-- John Muir

"

Ditto.

Time's fun when you're having flies.
--Kermit the Frog

[FaceKhan]

First of all. I don't buy it.

There is a big difference between a kid asking their parents to go on a wildnerness trek that ends up being some kind of cockeyed wildnerness therapy bullshit. My friend Aaron ended up like that. He thought he was going on a 3 week camping trip, and so did his parents. Around the time he was being strip searched and told that if he did not improve his behavior they would let him stay another 3 weeks at no cost to his parents he realized how fucked up the place (Catherine Freer) was. It did not take long for the staff to realize he was more or less normal (that and his father is a big gun lawyer)and they pretty much left him alone. The other kids there were sent for all kinds of crazy shit but there were plenty of minor cases too.

Either way big difference between a hike in the woods and a lockdown concentration camp complete with rape, beatings, starvation and torture.

If his cousin is doing well, chances are he is not out of there yet since that seems the only time when even the most hardcore parents are convinced that the kid is fine. Even the parents who believe the program saved their kids don't delude themselves to thinking everything is fine when they self-destruct a few months after getting home.

[Anonymous]

My mother and dad met with the folks from TB last Monday and they have agreed that I am on a way to death or jail based on my lifestyle.  I skipp school and scream at my elders.  It is time to grow up; I go in next Monday adn I'll be back on this board when I become a graduate and a man. Until then, thanks for all the encouragement I have received.

James

[Anonymous]

On 2003-10-30 04:36:00, Anonymous wrote:

"My mother and dad met with the folks from TB last Monday and they have agreed that I am on a way to death or jail based on my lifestyle.  I skipp school and scream at my elders.  It is time to grow up; I go in next Monday adn I'll be back on this board when I become a graduate and a man. Until then, thanks for all the encouragement I have received.



James"

I don't buy that you're a real kid, I think you're trolling for flames.

If you are a real kid, your parents are using a dangerous sledgehammer to swat something that's alittle bit bigger than a fly, but not at "death or jail" level---except for a misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct for screaming at people, someday, if you don't learn better ways of communicating.

Anger management training and letting you either decide to quit school and get a job, go to alternative school, or get your act in gear and quit skipping school are the more sane and proportional solutions to that level of problem.

Being a high school dropout is bad, but it's not exactly the same thing as "jail or death."

People do survive it, get GEDs, go to community college and get an education, etc.

Sure, it's not the track to Harvard, but it's not nearly "jail or death."

When you get right down to it, the risks from being a high school dropout are less than the risks of being a psychiatric casualty from a dangerous "program" which substitutes Stockholm Syndrome and other mind control techniques on a one-size-fits-all basis for actual competent standard-of-care treatment of the individual teen's real problems in living.

If you are a real kid, I don't know what you haven't told us, and I haven't seen you, and I'm not a professional.

But I certainly would't commit MY child to an institution without trying all the less restrictive alternatives recommended by a GOOD licensed clinical psychologist, first.

[Anonymous]

Oh, and more to the point, if I WAS going to commit my teen to an institution, I wouldn't choose one with the reputation for child abuse and neglect that TB has.

I'd choose one where I had made a site visit, verified my child's treatment would be the specific responsibility of a specific licensed professional, and personally verified that professional's credentials with the institutions awarding his/her degrees and the appropriate licensing board.

I'd also choose one that agreed that I had the right to visit or otherwise contact my child at any time, and that allowed my child to freely send and recieve mail to/from the outside world (UNLESS my child was suicidal or threatening and specific mail would be harmful to him/her).

I'd also choose one that agreed it was under the oversight of a specific state agency (like family and children's services) and was in good standing with that agency.

I'd also choose one that carefully screened prospective entrants to the program, rejecting not only those with problems that weren't a match for the services provided, but also rejecting patients whose problems were insufficient to require residential treatment.

Those are the hallmarks of a Responsible and Safe residential treatment program.  When and if an institution is unavoidable for a loved one, one can at least make sure that it is a GOOD institution.