Camps for troubled teens is a sort of trope one sees in Hollywood films, but they do also exist in real life, in several forms.
Most of us are familiar with troublesome "conversion" camps; establishments that attempt to condition people out of homosexuality using dangerous and ineffective methods. We are also familiar with "fat camps," which try to encourage a spike in weight loss.
But there are many, with many different functions. And Hollywood has yet to explore just how varied those stories can be.
u/7deadlycinderella asked:
Here were some of those answers. Massive trigger warnings ahead: abuse, suicide, violence, abuse.
Refocusing Ahead
GiphyMy father lost custody of me for domestic violence and I got scooped up by CPS and put into the group home system. He got custody back a couple of months later and I ended up running away. They sent me to a place called "Vision Quest," which was a place with troublemakers, but not that bad. The thing that was bad was that there wasn't any food. I was eating little single serving cups of cream cheese.
Ended up running from there with another dude, and when we got picked up I ended up in a residential treatment facility, mostly because they didn't know what to do with me since I didn't earn any jail time along the way. That place was full of mostly native American kids. Some of them were from rival gangs. The violence was pretty bad. Midnight beatdowns, gang fights, racial violence. The people running it really seemed to mean well and were actually pretty fair about seeing "what really happened" vs "everyone gets punished, no matter what." Despite what the other kids were like, it was the first time anyone really told me that it was my family that was wrong and to just focus on the program and work towards an independent living program, which I did.
Life On The Outside
I went to a wilderness program then a residential treatment center. In the end, it was good for what was going on in my life, but it was a roller coaster. Raging out at being sent away one moment to being awed by nature in the next in the wilderness program, playing silly games with similar aged teens to feeling trapped behind tall metal gates, surrounded by large staff at the residential treatment center. I learned a lot, I healed, I had some wild moments, and wished I had kept in touch with other people who were in my group.
I wonder what they are doing now, did they make it? There were pictures on the wall of the art room of people who had graduated and a therapist was having a heart to heart with us, told the group to look up. Then told us a good percentage of those people were dead. They relapsed, they got back with abusers, they killed themselves. It hit me in the gut. Life's hard after treatment. You've been taught a lot then you are thrown back in to your old life and you have to use the skills for real. It's never as simple as the books explain it. (Second Nature and Vista in case any fellow alumns are on reddit)
Goodbye Goodbye
I did Outward Bound when I was 18. The group consisted of about 14 of us, all between the ages of 16 and 20.
One girl was "sent" by her parents, I assume to straighten her up. On the first night we camped, she fled. She took a map, a compass, and I think some matches and was gone when we woke up.
We were told later she had made it to a road and hitchhiked to somewhere. I think she eventually made it home.
If there are camps specifically for kids in trouble, her parents should have sent her to one of those.
Why We Need Reform In This Country
Went to Discovery Academy in Provo Utah for two years, until my parents went bankrupt and the school kicked me out. They also refused to release my transcripts so I ended up having to get a GED because I was technically two years behind.
This place had some amazing tools for parents with troubled kids. They had goons that would fly to your home and take your child out of their bed in the middle of the night and escort them to Provo. They had comfortable rooms that were probably 4x12 with no doors that you got to stand in all day in nothing but your underwear with a councilor guard outside. Hazing and bullying were essential to the therapy.
It had decent moments, but there was so much misery, so much Mormon indoctrination, and so many abuses of power over the students.
I saw this in another post and had to add it here: https://elan.school/rude-awakening/ Just read that comic.
It's This School Again
Got the heck repeatedly beat out of me at a Mormon boarding school in Provo, Utah. Almost everyone there was kept on incredibly high doses of anti-psychotics to keep us in line and so we couldn't fight back. When we did there was getting beat, strapped to a table, injected with drugs like haldol and the tossed naked into a concrete cell. "School" was a joke there and didn't actually bother to teach anyone anything. And the "therapists" well, what they and the other employees deserve probably isn't allowed to be said on here. Those that have been know what I'm talking about. Basically, the whole experience was rather quite unpleasant.
Time Heals Nothing
Went to Dundee ranch academy when I was 15, I am 32 now. It was shut down by the embassy for child abuse and living conditions among other things. I was there for a year and I still have nightmares of being trapped or jailed and other triggers. Sucks, I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy.
Too Many To Count
My experience with being forced to stay at a boarding school was horrible. It was highly abusive in uncountable ways. The staff were unprofessional and most certainly not there to comfort you in any way. They actually did the opposite and called us names like "liars" and "manipulators" and overall tried to make you feel like a bad person. They controlled every aspect of every moment of your waking life. It was not therapeutic at all. Anyone who says otherwise who went to these places is either brainwashed and in denial or enjoyed the sadism of bullying other students. The ones willing to snitch on and mistreat others did well and advanced in the program.
I was emotionally victimized by staff and students. There was no such thing as personal space or privacy. I was physically assaulted and abused by the staff. I am appalled these "schools" are still around and operating. I hate parents that put their children through that hell.
Plenty Of Gays
Was sent to a Marine style bootcamp for troubled teens. I was sent there because I was an a-hole towards my parents. Discovered upon arrival I was the only person sent there who was not in trouble with the law for assault, robbery, or drug possession. And I was made platoon leader of a bunch of kids who would probably end up in juvie after the camp. Fun times; would recommend for the amount of beatings, reprimands that went on there.
It Depends On Your Life
I got sent to a military school across the country for a year because I smelled funny one night. Now I was drunk and high on ether, but that's besides the point. I went in with a shallow knowledge of drugs and came out with a masters degree. Fortunately, I found my feet after a few years of the lifestyle and am just an average drinker now that will occasionally indulge in some refer. Overall I would suggest that putting a bunch of people with similar problems together for an extended period of time isn't really a great idea. I was definitely one of the fresh fish there. Most of those kids had way more serious issues, just based on what they claimed. Hard to say.
The Gay Persists
GiphyI went to a place that was for Christian parents to bring their teens who were "troubled".
Every morning we were required to wake up 2.5 hours before school and do an hour of chores upon waking, followed by an hour of mandatory bible study. We then would go to "school" which was really just a building with two ladies that sat all day at their desks as you did christian homeschool work books from like the 1950s. We werent allowed to listen to secular (non Christian) music, watch secular movies nor books. We were allowed to communicate to 2 friends on an approved list once we "leveled up" which was achieved by memorizing 30 plus bible verses that sometimes were multiple pages long. I had a friend who is from the middle east whom i had been best friends with since childhood and I got into huge trouble for trying to contact him as an approved friend, even though my parents were completely ok with it, because he was Muslim. If we did get into trouble (which I did A LOT) we were required to sit for up to 24 hours in a room by ourselves with only a bible, were not allowed to see our parents, and had to do 30-40 hours worth of chores. Sometimes we weren't even allowed to eat.
We got all our food donated to us, so most was way out of date.
I got kicked out after a year and a half being there because, well you cant take the gay out of someone.
I still have nightmares about that place.
Experiencing death is a fascinating and frightening idea.
Who doesn't want to know what is waiting for us on the other side?
But so many of us want to know and then come back and live a little longer.
It would be so great to be sure there is something else.
But the whole dying part is not that great, so we'll have to rely on other people's accounts.
Redditor AlaskaStiletto wanted to hear from everyone who has returned to life, so they asked:
"Redditors who have 'died' and come back to life, what did you see?"
Sensations
Happy Good Vibes GIF by Major League SoccerGiphy"My dad's heart stopped when he had a heart attack and he had to be brought back to life. He kept the paper copy of the heart monitor which shows he flatlined. He said he felt an overwhelming sensation of peace, like nothing he had felt before."
PeachesnPain
Recovery
"I had surgical complications in 2010 that caused a great deal of blood loss. As a result, I had extremely low blood pressure and could barely stay awake. I remember feeling like I was surrounded by loved ones who had passed. They were in a circle around me and I knew they were there to guide me onwards. I told them I was not ready to go because my kids needed me and I came back."
"My nurse later said she was afraid she’d find me dead every time she came into the room."
"It took months, and blood transfusions, but I recovered."
good_golly99
Take Me Back
"Overwhelming peace and happiness. A bright airy and floating feeling. I live a very stressful life. Imagine finding out the person you have had a crush on reveals they have the same feelings for you and then you win the lotto later that day - that was the feeling I had."
"I never feared death afterward and am relieved when I hear of people dying after suffering from an illness."
rayrayrayray
Free
The Light Minnie GIF by (G)I-DLEGiphy"I had a heart surgery with near-death experience, for me at least (well the possibility that those effects are caused by morphine is also there) I just saw black and nothing else but it was warm and I had such inner peace, its weird as I sometimes still think about it and wish this feeling of being so light and free again."
TooReDTooHigh
This is why I hate surgery.
You just never know.
Shocked
Giphy"More of a near-death experience. I was electrocuted. I felt like I was in a deep hole looking straight up in the sky. My life flashed before me. Felt sad for my family, but I had a deep sense of peace."
Admirable_Buyer6528
The SOB
"Nursing in the ICU, we’ve had people try to die on us many times during the years, some successfully. One guy stood out to me. His heart stopped. We called a code, are working on him, and suddenly he comes to. We hadn’t vented him yet, so he was able to talk, and he started screaming, 'Don’t let them take me, don’t let them take me, they are coming,' he was scared and yelling."
"Then he yelled a little more, as we tried to calm him down, he screamed, 'No, No,' and gestured towards the end of the bed, and died again. We didn’t get him back. It was seriously creepy. We called his son to tell him the news, and the son said basically, 'Good, he was an SOB.'”
1-cupcake-at-a-time
Colors
"My sister died and said it was extremely peaceful. She said it was very loud like a train station and lots of talking and she was stuck in this area that was like a curtain with lots of beautiful colors (colors that you don’t see in real life according to her) a man told her 'He was sorry, but she had to go back as it wasn’t her time.'"
Hannah_LL7
"I had a really similar experience except I was in an endless garden with flowers that were colors I had never seen before. It was quiet and peaceful and a woman in a dress looked at me, shook her head, and just said 'Not yet.' As I was coming back, it was extremely loud, like everyone in the world was trying to talk all at once. It was all very disorienting but it changed my perspective on life!"
huntokarrr
The Fog
"I was in a gray fog with a girl who looked a lot like a young version of my grandmother (who was still alive) but dressed like a pioneer in the 1800s she didn't say anything but kept pulling me towards an opening in the wall. I kept refusing to go because I was so tired."
"I finally got tired of her nagging and went and that's when I came to. I had bled out during a c-section and my heart could not beat without blood. They had to deliver the baby and sew up the bleeders. refill me with blood before they could restart my heart so, like, at least 12 minutes gone."
Fluffy-Hotel-5184
Through the Walls
"My spouse was dead for a couple of minutes one miserable night. She maintains that she saw nothing, but only heard people talking about her like through a wall. The only thing she remembers for absolute certain was begging an ER nurse that she didn't want to die."
"She's quite alive and well today."
Hot-Refrigerator6583
Well let's all be happy to be alive.
It seems to be all we have.
Trying to lose weight is a struggle understood by many people regardless of size.
The goal of reaching a healthy weight may seem unattainable, but with diet and exercise, it can pay off through persistence and discipline.
Seeing the pounds gradually drop off can also be a great motivator and incentivize people to stay the course.
Those who've achieved their respective weight goals shared their experiences when Redditor apprenti8455 asked:
"People who lost a lot of weight, what surprises you the most now?"
Redditors didn't see these coming.
Shiver Me Timbers
"I’m always cold now!"
– Telrom_1
"I had a coworker lose over 130 pounds five or six years ago. I’ve never seen him without a jacket on since."
– r7ndom
"140 lbs lost here starting just before COVID, I feel like that little old lady that's always cold, damn this top comment was on point lmao."
– mr_remy
Drawing Concern
"I lost 100 pounds over a year and a half but since I’m old(70’s) it seems few people comment on it because (I think) they think I’m wasting away from some terminal illness."
– dee-fondy
"Congrats on the weight loss! It’s honestly a real accomplishment 🙂"
"Working in oncology, I can never comment on someone’s weight loss unless I specifically know it was on purpose, regardless of their age. I think it kind of ruffles feathers at times, but like I don’t want to congratulate someone for having cancer or something. It’s a weird place to be in."
– LizardofDeath
Unleashing Insults
"I remember when I lost the first big chunk of weight (around 50 lbs) it was like it gave some people license to talk sh*t about the 'old' me. Old coworkers, friends, made a lot of not just negative, but harsh comments about what I used to look like. One person I met after the big loss saw a picture of me prior and said, 'Wow, we wouldn’t even be friends!'”
"It wasn’t extremely common, but I was a little alarmed by some of the attention. My weight has been up and down since then, but every time I gain a little it gets me a little down thinking about those things people said."
– alanamablamaspama
Not Everything Goes After Losing Weight
"The loose skin is a bit unexpected."
– KeltarCentauri
"I haven’t experienced it myself, but surgery to remove skin takes a long time to recover. Longer than bariatric surgery and usually isn’t covered by insurance unless you have both."
– KatMagic1977
"It definitely does take a long time to recover. My Dad dropped a little over 200 pounds a few years back and decided to go through with skin removal surgery to deal with the excess. His procedure was extensive, as in he had skin taken from just about every part of his body excluding his head, and he went through hell for weeks in recovery, and he was bedridden for a lot of it."
– Jaew96
These Redditors shared their pleasantly surprising experiences.
Shopping
"I can buy clothes in any store I want."
– WaySavvyD
"When I lost weight I was dying to go find cute, smaller clothes and I really struggled. As someone who had always been restricted to one or two stores that catered to plus-sized clothing, a full mall of shops with items in my size was daunting. Too many options and not enough knowledge of brands that were good vs cheap. I usually went home pretty frustrated."
– ganache98012
No More Symptoms
"Lost about 80 pounds in the past year and a half, biggest thing that I’ve noticed that I haven’t seen mentioned on here yet is my acid reflux and heartburn are basically gone. I used to be popping tums every couple hours and now they just sit in the medicine cabinet collecting dust."
– colleennicole93
Expanding Capabilities
"I'm all for not judging people by their appearance and I recognise that there are unhealthy, unachievable beauty standards, but one thing that is undeniable is that I can just do stuff now. Just stamina and flexibility alone are worth it, appearance is tertiary at best."
– Ramblonius
People Change Their Tune
"How much nicer people are to you."
"My feet weren't 'wide' they were 'fat.'"
– LiZZygsu
"Have to agree. Lost 220 lbs, people make eye contact and hold open doors and stuff"
"And on the foot thing, I also lost a full shoe size numerically and also wear regular width now 😅"
– awholedamngarden
It's gonna take some getting used to.
Bones Everywhere
"Having bones. Collarbones, wrist bones, knee bones, hip bones, ribs. I have so many bones sticking out everywhere and it’s weird as hell."
– Princess-Pancake-97
"I noticed the shadow of my ribs the other day and it threw me, there’s a whole skeleton in here."
– bekastrange
Knee Pillow
"Right?! And they’re so … pointy! Now I get why people sleep with pillows between their legs - the knee bones laying on top of each other (side sleeper here) is weird and jarring."
– snic2030
"I lost only 40 pounds within the last year or so. I’m struggling to relate to most of these comments as I feel like I just 'slimmed down' rather than dropped a ton. But wow, the pillow between the knees at night. YES! I can relate to this. I think a lot of my weight was in my thighs. I never needed to do this up until recently."
– Strongbad23
More Mobility
"I’ve lost 100 lbs since 2020. It’s a collection of little things that surprise me. For at least 10 years I couldn’t put on socks, or tie my shoes. I couldn’t bend over and pick something up. I couldn’t climb a ladder to fix something. Simple things like that I can do now that fascinate me."
"Edit: Some additional little things are sitting in a chair with arms, sitting in a booth in a restaurant, being able to shop in a normal store AND not needing to buy the biggest size there, being able to easily wipe my butt, and looking down and being able to see my penis."
– dma1965
People making significant changes, whether for mental or physical health, can surely find a newfound perspective on life.
But they can also discover different issues they never saw coming.
That being said, overcoming any challenge in life is laudable, especially if it leads to gaining confidence and ditching insecurities.