Quote From: preciousphotMy 15 year old son is at a "wilderness therapy school" called Sage Walk (an Aspen Group school). This is actually where they filmed "Brat Camp" a few years ago. Anyway this is his second trip there in just 1 year & they are recommending (and we know it's best) for him not to return home to us - because he wasn't successful at making good & safe choices this year - he needs to be placed in a boarding school in the next 2 1/2 weeks. I am just broken as a mother & we don't know where to turn... I can't believe for him to survive & hopefully thrive in life, that we will have to send him away. He is amazing & gifted & beautiful in so many ways - he is my first child & I would do anything for him, I love him so much & have told him his entire life that there is nothing he could ever do to change that - but, let me tell you - he has been testing that....he is very manipulative & lies so well...he is running away, doing drugs, using girls, bringing druggies & dealers around & into our homes & lives, frightening his younger siblings & we have gone into serious debt trying to help him. We have spent $45,000.00 in the past year for treatment & feel like horrible parents that we cannot afford anymore,,,,,he has made some progress in his stay this time - but, if he comes home now - that will all be blown. How do we find a Boarding School that will meet his needs - that will also work with our income? Oh - another reason we can't afford boarding school - we also lost our home to the flooding that happened here in Texas on Father's Day - we are still paying the mortgage for about 2 years while FEMA decides if they are going to buy us out - they wont let us rebuild unless we raise the house by 1 &1 tenth feet - that would be another $130,000.00 on top of the mortgage we already have. PLEASE - ANY ADVICE?????
Send him to Scandinavia as a backpacker. It is cheaper and he swill learn something. Now when Sagewalk has learned him survival skills, he can manage himself.
The price is 1000 dollars for access to train (a full month) and a youth hostel passport cost 50-100 dollars. Depending of the standard a night in a hostel costs 100-150 dollars. Foods is expensive in Norway but you can live on 20 dollars per day in the rest of the nordic countries.
Once he has been very far from his comfortzone and seen that he with is 15 years of age is becomming too old to act foolish, he will return matured.
(Our youth will have passed their binge drinking phase at 15 See. how the situation is in my country regarding the teenagers aged 13 to 15: http://www.espad.org/sa/node.asp?node=652 The very easy access to alcohol has lowered the drug use and when it comes to traffic accidents caused by DUI, people in jail and teenage pregnancies it has never been lower since we allowed teenagers aged 16 to buy their alcohol on their own. They mature quickly because they see the older peers sober and taking advantage of life.)
Sagewalk is holliday. It has become his comfortzone. A therapeutic school would be a warehouse for him until he is 18 and he would still be at risk of failing because the walls of both Sagewalk and the boarding school works two ways. They keep him in but also the world out and most important. They introduce him to youth, how have seen more drug- or alcoholuse or at least that is what he thinks and reacts upon. It is war stories in order to create respect among peers. See: http://parent-help-info.tk/ - Child already placed - Manipulation claims.
Remove him from his comfortzone - far away in a different culture. Then let him come back and fail if it doesn't work. As the doctor says "You can not change what you do not acknowledge." If he doesn't get it after two wilderness trip + a trip to the other side of the world, he will never get it.
Some people needs to hit rock bottom and if that means living in the garage or a hostel down the street, that is going to happen regardless of what you do.
The story continues with Alex, a 14-year-old girl who moved into The Dr. Phil House with her mom, grandmother and aunt. Alex’s family asked Dr. Phil to intervene because they couldn’t stop Alex from prostituting herself to older men. Dr. Phil confronts Alex’s aunt, Enza, and her mother, Kim, about how their venomous relationship is affecting Alex and leading her to turn to men for comfort. Enza apologizes for her behavior with Alex, and finds a new ally in the house, against Kim’s mother, Jeanette. Jeanette overhears a discussion about her and angrily informs Kim that she will find a new place to live. After confiscating Alex’s cell phone, Kim listens to a voicemail from an older man, trying to contact Alex for sex. Private investigator, Harold Copus, meets with Alex and gets information on the older men she says she’s been with, so they can be taken off the streets. On their last day in the House, Dr. Phil breaks the news to Alex that she won’t be returning home with her family. Find out where she’s going and what makes her break down in tears. Then, talk about the show here.
