Disproportionate punishments as a kid are the worst. You’d mess up somewhere and even fess up to it, but instead of that being a learning experience, you would get grounded for a week, without your phone.

Today’s story is about a much more extreme version of that. The poster of the story had a puff of a substance of debatable legality at 13 years of age, which led to him being sent away to a three-month rehab session, still upsetting him 7 years later.

More info: Reddit

Deciding on an adequate punishment for your teen may be difficult, but it’s certainly possible

Image credits: Vlad Bagacian  (not the actual photo)

A poster wanted input on whether he was a jerk for snapping at his mom after an insensitive comment from her

Image credits: Working-Force4192

After smoking some illicit substance, he was sent to rehab with hard drug users for 3 months at only 13 years of age

Image credits: Working-Force4192

When he heard his mom celebrating the fact that she had sent him to rehab, he went off on her for the trauma caused, cussing her out and storming out

The poster, after participating in that illicit substance mentioned in the intro, was caught by his parents. And even though it had been made legal at the time and he agrees that it wasn’t meant for 13 y.o. kids, he believes that being sent to rehab for 3 months with hard drug users was over the line.

Going through all of that must’ve been scary and traumatizing for OP, with him later going to therapy and talking about his parents. So when he heard his mom talking about how happy she is that she did send him to rehab and how much good it did, he simply flipped out, cursing her out.

Using some pretty intense language, he told his mother off and left the scene.

It only takes a little rooting in our memories to recollect the stupid things we did as teenagers. A commenter mentioned that at age 13, they had been spending time with friends in a park drinking vodka, smoking cigarettes and that they ultimately turned out fine.

I’m certain that you can remember some pretty bad moments from your youth that you wouldn’t want your kids doing, but if anything, that should make the punishments less severe and more understanding, rather than vice versa.

According to another Ask Reddit thread where people came to share their experiences of being sent to rehab, there were few positives to their experiences.

A lot of the time, teens would be under strict supervision by other teens, with little freedom or sense of individuality. Another person said that they learnt a lot from their rehab camp, for example, how to smoke a cigarette in under a minute and steal.

And the lifelong skill of how to make a bed, because they were made to do it hundreds of times in a row, as punishment or a way to establish discipline at the camp.

Image credits: Alena Darmel (not the actual photo)

This is a cautionary tale to parents who should do in-depth and detailed research if they intend to send their kids to a rehab camp of any sorts or otherwise. And surprising amounts of abuse may be legal, if you’re willing to do research.

These camps and other institutions all fall under the umbrella term of the “troubled teen” industry. Such places are often unregulated and unsupervised, only putting on the guise of a good camp for arriving parents or inspectors.

Camps like this accept not only teens with substance abuse “problems” (which may not even be problems, but isolated events), but also poorly behaving, delinquent and LGBTQ+ teens.

And, if that wasn’t obvious, the troubled teen industry has been the center of many controversies related to the abuse of minors, institutional corruption, and even death.

One especially controversial reeducation program is the Élan School. One of the early implementers of the program, they had opened in 1970, ultimately closing in 2011 due to various reports of child abuse from their attendants.

Children would be kidnapped by men in the middle of the night (with their parents’ permission, of course), tied up, thrown in a van, transported for thousands of miles, until they reached the school.

The worst was yet to come, though. In the school they’d be stripped of all individuality and the right to talk to other teens, unless they were talking about how well the program was working for them, and that was a rarity.

Besides talking, teens couldn’t even look at each other, smile, or whisper and if they attempted to escape, it would be so much worse for them.

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