Thread by @GeoffYoung4KY

Emma Isabella Aluise:
"People often ask me if I hate my parents for sending me away to a troubled teen industry program. The troubled teen industry (TTI) is a network of therapeutic boarding schools, wilderness camps, and religious reform programs...
madinamerica.com/2025/05/how-th…

...that claim to treat mental health struggles in teens. In the past few years, these programs have been under scrutiny for reports of abuse, manipulation, and even causing deaths among students. I spent 14 months in one of these programs, where I was isolated, medicated...

...without informed consent, and subjected to emotional torment. The TTI uses psychological persuasion tactics to capitalize on the guilt parents feel when their children face mental health challenges. They weaponize the label “troubled”...

...and ingrain fear into parents, pressuring them to buy into their programs. Falling for the TTI’s manipulation leads to harmful consequences not only for the child but also for their parents."

"The troubled teen industry relies on manipulative tactics that are similar to cults, which makes sense given its ties to the cult Synanon. TTI programs prey on scared parents by using coercive methods to persuade them into buying into their costly and often abusive programs."

"These programs, though marketed as “therapeutic,” are nothing more than profit-driven enterprises that exploit families at their most desperate. This exploitation is more than just a financial burden. Survivors repeatedly describe feelings of being abandoned, betrayed, and manipulated by both the TTI programs and, in many cases, their parents."

"In a journal entry, I wrote: “I don’t understand why they won’t let me go home. I’m working the program like they want me to.” Many survivors feel like their basic human rights were violated within the TTI...

...leaving us with the pain of being abused by a system that was supposed to protect us. Being sent away isn’t a matter of short-term discomfort but a fundamental breach of trust."

"The troubled teen industry does not just harm teens; it pulls families apart. Though it’s been over five years, I still find myself learning how to cope after my experience. Meanwhile, my parents struggle to accept that they were misled into believing...

...they were doing what was best for me. This cycle of misunderstanding cannot be broken until we address the core of this issue: the label “troubled.” This pervasive term lacks empathy for struggling teens. We must rethink this label as parents’ distress...

...often mirrors their child’s. Parents are not the enemy here. They, too, are victims of an industry that exploits their pain. The solution isn’t fixing this so-called “trouble”… it’s dismantling the system that profits from it."