Thanks to Surviving Straight Inc, Surviving Straight Inc the Documentary and WebDiva for bringing us tonight's guests.

Torture is not therapy. Packing your children off to be tortured by a group of sadists who call themselves a "tough love" program will not cure them of drug use or teenage rebellion. So-called "tough love" leads to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) which in turn can lead to increased drug use, increased antisocial behavior, and suicide. Kids given "tough love" therapy are more likely to use drugs afterwards than they were before.

Torture therapy programs which derive from Synanon used to be commonplace in Therapeutic Communities and many 12 step treatment programs aimed at adults; however, the worst of these abuses have been outlawed in the treatment of adults. Forcing grown men to wear diapers for a month is no longer legal addiction treatment in the US. However, the law does not protect children from being enrolled in such programs by their parents.

If you are a parent be very careful of enrolling your child in any sort of addiction treatment program. An NIH Consensus Statement tells us that "tough love" programs make teens' problems worse.

From 1976 to1993 Straight Inc treated over 50,000 youth. They were shut down in 1993 but their direct descendent AARC still functions in Canada and clones like WWASP abound.