Fornits

Fornits Home for Wayward Web Fora
An open discussion about the troubled parent industry

I was at Renaissance with you, I think. I wish I knew who you are! I came around Nov 1980 and left in Jan 1982. I was a bit older than you, 20. I was an unusual resident because I didn't really have a drug problem just a really bad behavior problem. My mom was a psychologist who believed i tough love and she convinced me to go. All these years later, the whole thing seems like a bad dream. For me, it managed to act as a wake call on some positive levels, but it was also profoundly unsophisticated and caused plenty of damage. The counselors were ham-fisted and completely out of their depth. They didn't have a clue what I was about and because I came from a fancy family, the mocked me like a bunch of street-y nuckleheads. The place gave me a way to start over, to reassess all the horrible choices I'd made in late adolescence, to reconnect with my family, but no one there had any real training and their intimidation and sleep-deprivation techniques often bordered on the dangerous. I remember watching them rank out a teenager who tried to come out as gay. It was really awful and I had to step in, though I had no standing and they tried to drown me out. I was sad to hear Collerell had died; what of? He was weird but well intentioned. I came in at the same time as he. I am still friendly with a guy named Nick Miele who became a counselor in the late 1980s. He now lives in South Beach.
For what it's worth, my life has turned out very well. I don't look back on Renaissance with fondness but as I said, it was the beginning of me turning my life around.