Pretty sure they blocked me after I commented, so no screenshot.
The US essentially has no restrictions on what parents can do to their children, or pay to have done to them. These companies will show up at night, and take a child out of their bed at night. They explicitly tell parents not to warn the kid what will happen.
Imagine being woken up in the middle of the night, maybe forced to quickly pack, and then be loaded in a van. You have no idea where you are going or why or who or what is going on. You get taken to a facility which is basically a cult. You might be dumped out in rural Utah, with people that have zero training in wilderness safety, who might punish you by denying you food and water.
Children die in these places all the fucking time. There generally is no state or federal oversight of these facilities - so there aren’t really investigations. These places are havens for child predators.
When I was sexually abused at a similar facility and tried to report it - I was placed on heavy doses of antipsychotics in retaliation. They drugged me unconscious, and then punished me for sleeping during “class.” As an adult, I have involuntary shakes and movements associated with the medical malpractice enacted on me.
These places don’t get investigated, they don’t get shut down. I think Utah is one of the only states with any form of agency that watches over these places. Child protective services won’t go in, health care agencies won’t go in.
Children have no rights in the US. They are the property of their parents, to be disposed of as they wish. And fuckers like this agency are delighted to kidnap children that their parents can’t be assed to parent.
Some states absolutely have cracked down on these types of places, as they were notoriously used for conversion therapy, among other terrible purposes. I definitely went to one of these places when I was a rebellious teenager, but I was fortunate in only having to go on the weekends during the day. I was also fortunate that the place had some oversight by my state, as I quickly learned that all their “punishments” could easily be defeated by simply refusing to participate (e.g. refusing to run laps, clean the gym floor with a toothbrush, etc). I lasted maybe 3 weekends there before they kicked me out of their “program.”
That was 20+ years ago, and it still kind of blows my mind that those places exist. Therapy and supportive parents will “correct” rebellious behaviors 90+% of the time.
The funniest thing about my story is that it was kind of the reverse of the regular one. My mom was the wild one who did drugs, and was trying to keep me from noticing.
I wasn’t really “troubled.” I didn’t do drugs, I was a shy weird kid with good grades, never acted up in school - I didn’t learn the word “blowjob” until we watched Why Did I Get Married as part of “group therapy.” My mom just was a munchausen psycho. The actual psychiatric hospitals she sent me to would pick up on that quickly, but these fucking places don’t care, they just want the cash.
Munchausen, oof… brutal, sorry you had to endure that as a kid. My wife is a children’s therapist, specializing in play therapy for traumatized kids. It’s definitely opened my eyes to how much misery in society could be dramatically reduced by simple early intervention in young children. So many problems in adulthood are rooted in untreated trauma. Anyway, I hope you’re doing well now, despite having to go through that gauntlet of a mentally unwell parent as a kid.
Also, very much agree that these places should absolutely be nationally outlawed.
Have you punched her in the mouth yet? Sounds like she has it coming.
I’ve never been physically violent as a person, but that didn’t stop her from telling these types of fuckers I was. I don’t think I’ve ever punched anyone. I’ve told her exactly what I think about her a few times, and maybe the punishment is that she has to live with the knowledge that her child hates her.
I cut off contact in my early twenties, briefly tried “maybe she’s better, maybe I was actually a crazy kid” (it is very hard to wrap one’s head around the idea that their parent deliberately hurt them) then discovered that she had lied about my biological father all of my life. That was the final straw.
She is an insane monster. When I wake up and hear she’s gone someday, it will be like the clear skies after a rough storm.
Save a bottle of champagne, if that’s the case. Pop the cork when the storm clears.