The Family Foundation School
In my life before The Family School I was extremely self-centered. I hurt everyone around me to get what I wanted and got a lot of negative attention by acting like a psycho. I had no interest in God because he probably didn't want me to steal, lie, cheat, or use substances.
My life became unmanageable early on. I was kicked out of 8th grade for drinking and drugging, and a year later was thrown out of 9th grade for the same reasons. I also owed thousands of dollars in gambling debt and spent my life running from those I owed money to.
Before FFS, my life was unmanageable and out of control. I was shooting heroin, selling drugs, stealing, and lying to my parents. I did anything to blind me from reality because I hated who I had become.
At home I was an overeater and extremely overweight. Going to school was the last thing on my mind. I stayed home and slept all day, then got up and stayed out all night. I was rude and disrespectful and had fits of temper.
At home I perfected the art of quitting. My attempts at sports, school, and relationships amounted to nothing but pathetic stories because I never followed through. I did not like myself and wanted to escape the judgment of others.
My life at home was full of lies and deceit. I became part of the tough crowd in middle school, and in high school I was in and out of detention, got into bad relationships, ran away and was sent to a psych ward.
To put it bluntly, I was a drunk. I didn't care about my family, or God, just drinking and smoking. I was drug-tested for the first time at 12, at 13 I was in outpatient rehab, and at 15 I was sent to wilderness and then to The Family School.
I was 15 and my mother was driving me to the hospital. She was crying, but all I could think of was what a good job I had done not eating. I felt no remorse, only the desire to leave and continue killing myself.
I am an alcoholic and a drug addict who couldn't live life on life's terms, so I drank. When my dad was diagnosed with cancer, I was introduced to heavier drugs and started stealing and selling his pain medication.
I was empty, angry, miserable, and lonely at home, and used any means possible to numb my feelings. I dropped out of school. Nothing really mattered, and I was quickly using up my friends and family.
Resources for Parents
Parents and families of teenagers are often at a loss when it comes to understanding a teen's problem behavior or identifying the issues behind it.
Those who deal with these teens - whether educational professionals, psychologists, or staff of a teen program or facility - can be a great source of help to parents. The articles below offer a starting point for approaching some of the problems of troubled or struggling teens, and provide strategies for coping with their difficult behavior.
How Do I Decide the Best School for My Child?
For years, I have worked with parents of troubled teens and struggling teens as they have searched for therapeutic boarding schools. This is one of the most difficult decisions parents must make on behalf of their child and their family...
Signs of Teen Alcohol and Drug Abuse
Parents of teenagers are rarely without something to argue over, worry about, or be annoyed with. For instance, it's not unusual for teenagers to sleep late, talk back to their parents, or lose interest in the friends, hobbies and activities that occupied their time during elementary school...
Oppositional Defiant Disorder Facts
Determining when a child's behavior meets the criteria for a specific disorder is difficult for parents. Complicating our understanding of our children's behavior is our own questioning about whether we are at fault - that is, if the behavioral problems are a result of something we are doing, or not doing...
Understanding Teen Depression
The teen years are typically a time of change and self-discovery, rebellion and self-reliance, increased social expectation and peer pressure, and the development of a new identity. From the ages of 12 to 18, children are expected to push limits and experiment with new people, interests, and ideas...
Troubled Teen Girls and Depression
Adolescence is a time of change, development and discovery--of finding one's identity. It's a time of realizing and appreciating one's individuality and of learning how to maintain that individuality while interfacing with the surrounding culture...
Bright But Failing
Most parents, regardless of educational background, have high hopes for their children's academic success. Those with a family tradition of scholastic achievement expect their children to excel pretty much as they did...
Troubled Teens and Eating Disorders
Eating disorders affect as many as 10 in 100 young women in the United States today and a growing number of young men. The eating patterns involved are responses to an obsession with food and physical appearance, and are driven by powerful, distorted thinking...
Understanding Self-Injury in Troubled Teens
An increasing number of adolescents, particularly females, secretly cut, scratch or burn their skin in an attempt to feel better. They damage their skin purposely and voluntarily as a way to cope with overwhelming emotions they simply cannot verbalize. This behavior is referred to as cutting...
Teen Substance Abuse and Money
Parents rightly want their children to feel safe, comfortable, and unhampered with concerns about money, perhaps wanting to correct for a struggle that they once experienced in their own teenage years. There is a dangerous pitfall, however, that many parents fall into...
12 Steps for Angry Teens
We live in violent times, in a country where an incident of child abuse is reported every ten seconds; where domestic violence claims the lives of three women every single day; and where every year half a million senior citizens are abused - most often by a member of their own family...
ADD & ADHD Facts
Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADD or AD/HD) is a condition associated with inattentiveness, impulsivity, and hyperactivity. It can be divided into three subtypes according to the main features associated with the disorder...
Animal-Assisted Therapy for Troubled Teens
As a 220-pound St. Bernard, Samson had quite a presence. Even as a puppy, he had the ability to connect with children and youth with special needs, and we soon certified him as an Animal-Assisted Therapy dog. He often accompanied me to my job as a counselor at a boarding school for at-risk teens...
Problem Teens and ADHD Behaviors in the Classroom
It is estimated that Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) affects as many as 10% of the population in the United States, and approximately 5% of children ages 9 to 17. . . . People with ADHD overlook details, miss information, and have difficulty performing tasks that require concentration...
