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Rescuing
A Teen In Despair:
A Message From A Grateful Alldredge Parent
Nancy Gregory
Arlington, Virginia
rosey@erols.com I have
been a parent for close to 21 years and there's so much
I didn't know. I had never heard of an educational consultant,
Wilderness programs, Therapeutic Boarding schools or Emotional
Growth Schools. Didn't know about cutting, anxiety disorders,
and alcohol abuse. We knew our son was depressed - was
first diagnosed at the age of ten. Despite medication and
counseling on and off for the last seven years, he has
slowly sunk deeper and deeper into a very dark place. I
have been worried about him for such a long time but had
no idea of the depths of his pain and destructive behavior.
All
of that changed this past Spring. Our son spent ten days
in the psychiatric ward at the local Children's Hospital
and then moved on to a day treatment program for three
weeks. During this time, our son was very much in denial
about the depths of his problems. He insisted that he was
fine, that we should just leave him alone and let him get
back to his life. All of my instincts were telling me he
needed more help, more treatment but I didn't know where
to turn. It was then that we heard about Alldredge Academy.
My son's
therapist put us in touch with an extraordinary educational
consultant. The consultant met with my family and presented
treatment options for helping to save my son's life. The
consultant told our son that he needed to take three months
out of his life to save his life. Guaranteed that after spending
three months at Alldredge, what he felt on the inside would
be what he showed on the outside. Our son reluctantly agreed
to go.
During
the last three months, Alldredge has taken our family on
an extraordinary journey. The counselors and instructors
taught us about the connections that families and their
problems have to do with the resulting behavior of their
struggling teens. They helped us to understand the roles
that we each play in each others lives and how we can work
together to help heal the wounds and rebuild our relationships
with each other.
Most
importantly, they helped my son understand his demons and
how he got to this dark place. They helped him tear down
the barriers he had built up around him and to begin to
see his true self and the gifts and talents the rest of
us see in him. These compassionate, gifted counselors taught
our son how to identify and recognize triggers that led
to his destructive behavior and taught him coping strategies
that are empowering him to make positive choices in how
he wants to live his life. Finally, they helped him to
see that he has to want to save his own life - no one else
can do that for him They helped him to see that as much
as he wanted to come back home to school, in reality, it
would be the worst thing possible for him.
I don't
know how you thank someone for saving your son's life.
How can you possibly repay these people who guided your
son out of a long, dark tunnel to see hope and possibilities
for the first time since he was too young to remember?
These people who worked with your son night and day for
three exhausting months, who helped him and us see the
rainbow of possibilities the world can offer him. My mother
always said that the best thing you can do to thank someone
is to write a note. So, thank you, Bradley, Ian, Keith,
Cary, Mike, Bart, John, Bobby, Michelle, Cathy and all
the others at Alldredge for rescuing a boy in pain and
giving us our son back.
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