Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform > New Info

Pure aka http://www.helpyourteens.com? Good idea or bad idea

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FaceKhan:
I recently began seeing a lot of activist links to http://www.helpyourteens.com



Supposedly it is a free consultant service to help refer parents to legitimate programs for teens. They are rabidly anti-wwasp which I take as a good sign. My only questions about them come because they use a lot of the same language as other pro-program sites and they use the same kinds of vague criteria for assessing whether a teen needs  "treatment". They also seem to regard "behavior modification" as treatment. Now there is some confusion over the use of this term, since it has become rather generic but behavior modification originally came from methods of brainwashing that are completely repugnant to mental health. I can't remember the "inventors" name but I do remember that his own daughter killed herself after being subjected to his idea of parenting.



So the question becomes is PURE a good idea or not. Is there a place for a kinder gentler teen treatment industry? Or is this just a group of parents who despite recognizing the dangers of this kind of involuntary "treatment" will not let go of the assumption that they, the parents, have some kind of moral highground in settling family problems by having their teen kidnapped and sent to some kind of program whether good or bad.

[ This Message was edited by: FaceKhan on 2002-10-27 15:03 ]

Anonymous:
This section is really cause for concern... especially that quiz thing that is supposed to evaluate your child's "danger level".

Look at some of the criteria on that quiz... "Has rejected family values... no longer takes interest in family activites..." etc. Those are absolutely normal and healthy signs of a teenager beginning to assert his/her own identity--"I'm a person in my own right" as opposed to "I'm my mom and dad's kid". And if you look at the sheer percentages, at least 90% of teens have tried tobacco at some time or other, 60% illegal drugs, the majority have had sex... does that mean that they should all be in residential treatment programs? I don't think so!!!

I'm a perfectly normal young adult now, 19 and in college, making normal-ish grades. Thankfully I was never subjected to a residential program, but my parents threatened it several times. Just for fun, I put in the answers my parents would have, when I was a teen. The result? 67%... High Risk... "A treatment program is highly recommended." I was a normal teen, and I'm a normal adult!

FaceKhan:
Yeah I had the same issue with that quiz. I was depressed at a teen and although I never was never sent anywhere several people I know have been sent to wildnerness programs and I am pretty sure that a kid I was friends with in 6th grade was sent because he went to some boarding school after around 9th or tenth grade and came back for senior year and in general people do not switch schools senior year and I knew his parents were insane.








I went through and answered yes on just the questions that "you suspect or have reason to beleive or fear drug use, sex etc." and it comes up as 40% or moderate risk with just those with no actual negative behavior checked just the parents concerns checked. How is it that if a parent is afraid of drug use or sexual promiscuity or does not approve of the kid's friends does that translate into mental illness on the part of the teen? Still after reviewing other parts of the site I think they are on the right track and I would much rather a parent go to that site than one of WWASPS's.



I am 19 and in college too, heh funny how things work out fine when your not kidnapped to a prison complex and the kids who went to these programs still don't get along with their parents and often still don't lead normalish lives. I know that if I ended up in a place like tranquility bay at 15 I would have probably gone completely insane and either killed myself or killed some staff members. One of my lifelong convictions has been the right of self-defense so I would have faced no ethical dilemma in killing my captors since anyone who works for these people deserves to be burned at the stake. I actually found about these teen concentration camps a few months after I had started unschooling as a solution to my depression which was mostly school and anxiety related.

The programs definitely become an addiction for the parents. When their kid comes home and goes things go back to the way they were before the program (even a safe and professional one) a few months later because the family is the problem and not just the teen the parents go find another program. One of my friends who was kidnapped to a wildnerness program 2 summers ago, a few months before he turned 18, has now been forced (under penalty of being cut off and kicked out) to go to an 18+ program. Of course the 18+ program is basically a joke according to him because it just gives him the distance from his parents that he wanted anyways and he can pretty much do whatever he wants, he just lives with the program.

I just feel that in many ways the residential treatment industry as a whole is a fraud and we need legislation that requires a hearing before children and teens can be committed because there is just too much potential for abuse in any system that allows parents to commit their children without any proof of actual need.


 

[ This Message was edited by: FaceKhan on 2002-10-28 00:19 ]

Antigen:
I spoke with Sue briefly a week or two ago. She couldn't exactly tell me how she goes about qualifying good or legitimate programs and had no response at all, I mean like confused silence, to my suggestion that a parent should start with college admissions departments when looking for boarding school recomendations.

Here's where she's coming from:
http://www.helpyourteens.com/true_story.html

I think this woman is severely misguided. A lot of Straight survivors sort of land up in the same mindset. They think that some things about the Program were bad, but overall it's a good thing. The seek out a kinder, gentler Program. What they wind up with is SAFE. Turns out, when you take out the most effective aspects of the thought reform regimen, all you wind up with is an ineffective and therefore needlessly long program. Some of these places now take in excess of 2 years to properly break their charges. At least in the days of The Seed, most people got in and out after only about 8 - 12 months.

It would be interesting to get ahold of the daughter and see what she has to say about it all. Weston, btw, doesn't have a bad neighborhood. It's a Westinghouse planned community to the west of Ft. Lauderdale. Totally Stepford!

GregFL:
You an me ginger, we think alike. As a matter of fact, we just had this conversation last week!

Have I told you lately how much I admire you?

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