Extended Residential Stays for Minors in The U.S.A.

When I was sixteen years of age last year I wasn't attending class too often. This had been an ongoing problem for quite some time. To say the least I just highly disliked school and I'm not entirely sure why. If I had to guess it would be the atmosphere. I just felt very uncomfortable there. Regardless, I had been missing maybe one to two days of school a week for the past few years. Well, after the start of my Junior semester the same trend occurred. After a few months I had a LOT of work to catch up on if I wanted to pass my classes.

Three years earlier I was committed to a residential stay for thirty days. The school there was beyond a joke. I suppose I was looking for an easy way out and accepted to go to day treatment to attend school there. After less than a month winter break came around. All of my friends and even my siblings had two weeks off while I had to spend time with some strange people in a place that was already strange enough. I didn't go much during those two weeks for obvious reasons. They took the liberty to convince my parents that residential stay was best for me, as every other day patient. There wasn't a single day patient that attended longer than a month before going into residential which is very odd.

I was in residential stay for four months. I honestly can't tell you why as there is NO logical reason as to why such an extended stay was necessary. They told me I had anxiety AFTER they pulled me off of my benzodiazepine I had been taking for three years previously. I had intense anxiety for three weeks before going back to normal. I didn't have anxiety after that but no one listened to me. On my psychological testing some months later I tested relatively low for anxiety. After I was released I saw that they had listed several things in which were the reasons I was committed that were simply not true such as poly-substance abuse when I solely smoke cannabis occasionally to deal with stress. Most of the other kids there had similar stories with the occasional crazy. Mostly run-aways and trouble makers.

My psychologist made my cry on one occasion as he I upset him. He shoved my psychological results in my face and told me to read them myself. My therapist would tell me one thing to get me to open up to her and then tell my parents everything I had said. After I got into day treatment after four months I started smoking cannabis daily. MUCH more than I ever had as life was unbearable. I came there everyday high. My psychiatrist knew this and had me take a drug test. I urinated in the cup and several days later my results were clean. He was fairly upset and said he no longer trusted me or believed anything I said (not that he did before). They attempted to convince my parents to put me into an addiction center but my parents reasoning for not doing so was that I had been through enough.

I am now seventeen and I want to see the psychiatric world burn. I will gladly run away if a serious attempt is made to put me back there. Why do minors have so few rights in the land of the "free"?

hitoame wrote:When I was sixteen years of age last year I wasn't attending class too often. This had been an ongoing problem for quite some time. To say the least I just highly disliked school and I'm not entirely sure why. If I had to guess it would be the atmosphere. I just felt very uncomfortable there. Regardless, I had been missing maybe one to two days of school a week for the past few years. Well, after the start of my Junior semester the same trend occurred. After a few months I had a LOT of work to catch up on if I wanted to pass my classes.

Three years earlier I was committed to a residential stay for thirty days. The school there was beyond a joke. I suppose I was looking for an easy way out and accepted to go to day treatment to attend school there. After less than a month winter break came around. All of my friends and even my siblings had two weeks off while I had to spend time with some strange people in a place that was already strange enough. I didn't go much during those two weeks for obvious reasons. They took the liberty to convince my parents that residential stay was best for me, as every other day patient. There wasn't a single day patient that attended longer than a month before going into residential which is very odd.

I was in residential stay for four months. I honestly can't tell you why as there is NO logical reason as to why such an extended stay was necessary. They told me I had anxiety AFTER they pulled me off of my benzodiazepine I had been taking for three years previously. I had intense anxiety for three weeks before going back to normal. I didn't have anxiety after that but no one listened to me. On my psychological testing some months later I tested relatively low for anxiety. After I was released I saw that they had listed several things in which were the reasons I was committed that were simply not true such as poly-substance abuse when I solely smoke cannabis occasionally to deal with stress. Most of the other kids there had similar stories with the occasional crazy. Mostly run-aways and trouble makers.

My psychologist made my cry on one occasion as he I upset him. He shoved my psychological results in my face and told me to read them myself. My therapist would tell me one thing to get me to open up to her and then tell my parents everything I had said. After I got into day treatment after four months I started smoking cannabis daily. MUCH more than I ever had as life was unbearable. I came there everyday high. My psychiatrist knew this and had me take a drug test. I urinated in the cup and several days later my results were clean. He was fairly upset and said he no longer trusted me or believed anything I said (not that he did before). They attempted to convince my parents to put me into an addiction center but my parents reasoning for not doing so was that I had been through enough.

I am now seventeen and I want to see the psychiatric world burn. I will gladly run away if a serious attempt is made to put me back there. Why do minors have so few rights in the land of the "free"?

The psychiatrists and staff in these treatment centers are grossly incompetent. They only follow the rules of the treatment center guidelines which have only one objective: make people look and feel as sick as possibly. It guarantees people stay in treatment while requiring more of there services. Which means more profit for those who run these intuitions. What you experienced wasn't therapy, rather abuse. These people have more psychological problems then the people they treat. I would not mull over what they told you. As unpleasant as it was its just them playing mind games to get you to spill problems they know nothing about. Its a game, its not real. Psychiatrists/psychologists play mind games all the time to get people to speak. Its wrong. Right when you said your therapist told your parents what she had promised to keep a secret shows that she violated trust. As long as it wasn't a secret regarding imminent self harm, she cant say anything. She must keep a promise, she must establish a relationship. I doubt they took any of that seriously.


The vast majority of these kids are highly traumatized, as you say run aways with most having good reason to. Vast majority of these treatment center do is throwing drugs out or just agitate them. As for your cannabis use its on them. Anyone in a stressful environment will find ways of coping, even if its not the best one. Sadly to many fail to see that drug use is not about defiance or irresponsibility, its about self medicating. Punishing those who use drugs only makes them do more. A starting point would have been them identifying stressors then giving you a way to cope with them.

Im sorry you had to go through that. Places like that fail everyone. And its nothing you should take personally. Your not at fault, they are. However, I get you, its a horrible thing to go through.

hitoame wrote: Why do minors have so few rights in the land of the "free"?

Maybe this will explain , I copied the below from an activist in another forum.

Why your kid is drugged in school

How it works:

The State Department of Education gets monies from the Federal Government (Disability) under a program called "IDEA" for each child diagnosed with a disability. A disability could be ADD/ADHD, Bi-polar disorder, Depression or any of the other mental diagnoses.

Who profits: The State Department of Education, the mental health and counseling Industry, the Pharmaceutical company and the money that is kicked back by lobbyists for politicians special interest and of course the legal profession.

All this at the cost of your child's Health and welfare.

----------
IDEA" Final Regulation (part 1 of 2)

300.7 Child with a disability.

(a) General.

(1) As used in this part, the term child with a disability means a child evaluated in accordance with §§300.530-300.536 as having mental retardation, a hearing impairment including deafness, a speech or language impairment, a visual impairment including blindness, serious emotional disturbance (hereafter referred to as emotional disturbance), an orthopedic impairment, autism, traumatic brain injury, an other health impairment, a specific learning disability, deaf-blindness, or multiple disabilities, and who, by reason thereof, needs special education and related services.
(i) The term means a condition exhibiting one or more of the following characteristics over a long period of time and to a marked degree that adversely affects a child's educational performance:
(A) An inability to learn that cannot be explained by intellectual, sensory, or health factors.
(B) An inability to build or maintain satisfactory interpersonal relationships with peers and teachers.
(C) Inappropriate types of behavior or feelings under normal circumstances.
(D) A general pervasive mood of unhappiness or depression.
(E) A tendency to develop physical symptoms or fears associated with personal or school problems.
(ii) The term includes schizophrenia. The term does not apply to children who are socially maladjusted, unless it is determined that they have an emotional disturbance.
9) Other health impairment means having limited strength, vitality or alertness, including a heightened alertness to environmental stimuli, that results in limited alertness with respect to the educational environment, that-
(i) Is due to chronic or acute health problems such as asthma, attention deficit disorder or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, diabetes, epilepsy, a heart condition, hemophilia, lead poisoning, leukemia, nephritis, rheumatic fever, and sickle cell anemia; and
(ii) Adversely affects a child's educational performance
§300.24 Related services.
(a) General. As used in this part, the term related services means transportation and such developmental, corrective, and other supportive services as are required to assist a child with a disability.
(9) Psychological services includes-
(i) Administering psychological and educational tests, and other assessment procedures;
(ii) Interpreting assessment results;
(iii) Obtaining, integrating, and interpreting information about child behavior and conditions relating to learning;
(iv) Consulting with other staff members in planning school programs to meet the special needs of children as indicated by psychological tests, interviews, and behavioral evaluations;
(v) Planning and managing a program of psychological services, including psychological counseling for children and parents; and
(vi) Assisting in developing positive behavioral intervention strategies.
----------
Continued ...

That's enough of that paste, that's "IDEA". Lots and lots of people making money off that idea.

hitoame wrote:I am now seventeen and I want to see the psychiatric world burn.

If it was me I would just not take part in it and say something like this,

I refuse contact with and treatment by any psychiatrist, psychologist or other mental health practitioner as these practices, according to my philosophic and/or religious convictions, do not adequately or properly diagnose and such diagnoses can constitute a false accusation about my behavior and/or beliefs and practices, and are stigmatizing and therefore a threat to one's reputation and physical and mental well-being. Any of their treatments, given against my expressed wish, are an intrusion upon and thus an assault on my body and constitute, in my view, criminal assault. Any involuntary hospitalization or commitment is a violation of my right to liberty and would therefore constitute a false imprisonment by all those advocating and authorizing such action, against my consent and wishes. If in the future, I am accused of a crime, then I direct that I be subject to due process accorded to the criminally accused and not subjected to psychiatric or psychological assessment, processing, profile, confinement or treatments.

I maintain my right not to have any psychiatric evaluation or diagnosis based upon the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) as such diagnoses are unreliable. Additionally, the DSM system is not scientific. It’s own editors state that “there is no assumption that each category of mental disorder is a completely discrete entity with absolute boundaries dividing it from other mental disorders or from no mental disorder.” (DSM-IV, pg. xxii)

Such codes and descriptions should not be entered into my medical records as this unreliable and unscientific information will remain in my records and may wrongly influence any future medical treatment I might receive.

That's from the psychiatric living will. http://www.google.com/search?q=the+psyc ... iving+will

Or just say

"Sorry I don't believe in psychiatry , no thanks"

"Nope I am not going to take part in this, thanks"

"Not today, psychiatry is not for me,thanks "

Take part in mental health stuff ? no thanks.


Watch this video "Top DHS checkpoint refusals " and maybe treat mental health workers the same way.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4Ku17CqdZg

I highly appreciate the informative responses. Thank you very much.

I'll keep a copy of the psychiatric living will with me in my wallet even though I'm fairly sure it's useless unless you are eighteen years of age or older. I emailed Oregon Disability Rights when I was on a home visit and they said there was nothing that could be done.

hitoame wrote:I highly appreciate the informative responses. Thank you very much.

I'll keep a copy of the psychiatric living will with me in my wallet even though I'm fairly sure it's useless unless you are eighteen years of age or older. I emailed Oregon Disability Rights when I was on a home visit and they said there was nothing that could be done.

Of course there is "nothing that could be done", they are advocates for the system and pharma, not patients.

Follow along , ready ?

Google search disability rights oregon NAMI below,

http://www.google.com/search?q=disability+rights+oregon+NAMI

See that, they play with and are a branch of the pharmaceutical front, patient rights opposing NAMI

It's all the same scam with different names these 'advocacy' and 'rights' groups.

Here is more on NAMI


The Philadelphia Inquirer, in a May 28, 2006 investigative article on the relationships between patient advocacy groups and pharmaceutical companies stated that, "Although patients seldom know it, many patient groups and drug companies maintain close, multimillion-dollar relationships while disclosing limited or no details about the ties." The article also zeroed in on NAMI, stating that "The National Alliance on Mental Illness, an outspoken patient advocate, lobbies for treatment programs that also benefit its drug-company donors." The Inquirer reported that NAMI "did not disclose that Lilly marketing manager Gerald Radke briefly ran its entire operation. Radke began in 1999 as a Lilly-paid "management consultant," then left Lilly and served as NAMI's paid "interim executive director" until mid-2001. The group acknowledged this only after being shown Radke's resume listing the job." The Inquirer further found that,

Lilly donated at least $3 million to NAMI. For its part, NAMI promotes the increased use of psychotropic drugs, lobbies against any cost-saving restrictions on number of psychotropic drugs prescribed for one patient under Medicaid, and even lobbies for laws allowing mental patients to be forced to take antipsychotic drugs. The drugs most often prescribed for involuntary patients -- Janssen's Risperdal (risperidone) and Lilly's Zyprexa (olanzapine) -- cause debilitating, indeed, lethal effects. NAMI's failure to inform its constituents about the danger these drugs pose for patients, and its continued aggressive promotion of these drugs despite the evidence, may be viewed as confirmation that NAMI is an extension of Lilly's marketing department."


Read alot more on how dirty these 'advocate' people are http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/National_Alliance_on_Mental_Illness


You could write a ripoffreport about the place that shows up on google searches http://www.ripoffreport.com


Also whats great is to turn on as many other victims as you can to "anti psychiatry" most people don't know there is opposition to the psychiatric human rights violating money making machine of abuse.

I usually turn on beginners to anti psychiatry with CCHRs "The Marketing of Madness" its very well done and as much as critics tried to challenge it they found nothing that wasn't true/

The Marketing of Madness exposes the real insanity in our psychiatric ‘health care’ system: profit-driven drug marketing at the expense of human rights. This film plunges into an industry corrupted by corporate greed and delivers a shocking warning from courageous experts who value public health over dollar.

http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/marketing-of-madness-are-we-all-insane/


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgCpa1RlSdQ

E-mail it post it spread it to all your pals, especially victims of psychiatry ...


Survivors of psychiatry are on these websites,

http://www.mindfreedom.com

http://www.madinamerica.com