How are these abusive teen rehab centers still open? Why are parents still sending their kids there? Can’t they be shut down?

Maia Szalavitz is an award-winning author and journalist who covers addiction and neuroscience. Her book, Help at Any Cost: How the Troubled-Teen Industry Cons Parents and Hurts Kids, is the first comprehensive look at systemic abuse in “tough love” programs and helped spur Congressional hearings & GAO investigations.

In this episode, you’ll hear how the abusive teen rehab centers featured in Netflix’s The Program & Wayward (think Straight Inc., The Seed, Synanon & wilderness camps) began with tough love doctrine, why you can legally treat kids worse than prisoners, why parents aren’t suing & why regulations just don’t stick. We also weave in the perspective of struggling parents who feel that the anti-troubled teen industry is hurting their healing efforts.

If you like this episode, you’ll also like episode 248: SURVIVING THE TROUBLED TEEN INDUSTRY: SEPARATING IDENTITY FROM EXPERIENCE [REMASTERED]

Guest:

https://x.com/maiasz

https://maiasz.com/

Resources:

Boy who was raised as a dog https://a.co/d/0bA3dxmi

Pace Center for Girls Pensacola https://www.pacecenter.org/locations/florida/escambia-santa-rosa/

Gulf Coast Kids House https://www.gulfcoastkidshouse.org/

Greenhouse Counseling https://www.ghcpensacola.com/

Host:

https://www.meredithforreal.com/

https://www.instagram.com/meredithforreal/

meredith@meredithforreal.com

https://www.youtube.com/meredithforreal

https://www.facebook.com/meredithforrealthecuriousintrovert

Sponsors:

https://www.jordanharbinger.com/starterpacks/

https://www.historicpensacola.org/about-us/

02:00 — The cult origins: Synanon begins

04:00 — “I must have needed that” psychology

05:00 — The rattlesnake assassination attempt

07:00 — The Seed and brainwashing teens

08:00 — Straight Incorporated goes national

10:00 — Why parents don’t believe abuse reports

12:00 — Utah wilderness programs rise

13:00 — The death of Aaron Bacon

14:00 — Moral panic & religious fear

15:00 — Good parents, fatal decisions

16:00 — Why regulation keeps failing

17:00 — Regulatory capture in Utah

20:00 — Unannounced inspections change everything

22:00 — Why traumatized kids need gentleness

27:00 — Warehouses of neglect

28:00 — Should therapy have an FDA?

29:00 — Renaming punishment as treatment

32:00 — Exhausted parents & marketing fear

34:00 — How small power corrupts

42:00 — Why lawsuits rarely succeed

44:00 — Private right of action explained

45:00 — Does awareness help or hurt?

46:00 — Educational consultants & kickbacks

54:00 — Local resources for struggling families

55:00 — Undoing drugs & keeping people alive

Request to join my private Facebook Group, MFR Curious Insiders https://www.facebook.com/share/g/1BAt3bpwJC/

What do you do if you have religious trauma, but don't want to abandon your faith?

Catherine Quiring is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor who specializes in helping ex-evangelicals overcome religious trauma. In this episode, she shares what that looked like for her, how to know if you have limiting thoughts leftover from controlling doctrine, how to keep your faith while you separate from systems of control & how to find your own thoughts in a sea of “shoulds.”

This episode originally aired June 12, 2023

If you like this episode, you’ll also like episode 156 with Joshua Harris: SHOULD SEX BE SAVED FOR MARRIAGE?

Guest:

https://www.instagram.com/catherinequiring

https://www.cqcounseling.com/

https://www.facebook.com/cqcounseling

Host:

https://www.meredithforreal.com/

https://www.instagram.com/meredithforreal/

meredith@meredithforreal.com

https://www.youtube.com/meredithforreal

https://www.facebook.com/meredithforrealthecuriousintrovert

Sponsors:

https://www.jordanharbinger.com/starterpacks/

https://www.historicpensacola.org/about-us/

01:00 — Why harmful church experiences are more common than we think

03:00 — Fear tactics, hell doctrine & covert narcissism

04:00 — Codependent faith & the pressure to feel God

05:00 — OCD spirituality & micromanaging your soul

06:00 — When people become “projects,” not peers

07:00 — Catherine’s story: trauma at seven

11:00 — Deconstruction vs. deconversion (not the same)

12:00 — “You’re in or you’re out” — high-control community dynamics

13:00 — Wheaton College & the first cracks in certainty

14:00 — Reimagining God: from judge to shepherd

15:00 — Releasing harmful doctrine & reclaiming the divine

16:00 — Why this healing can take 20 years

17:00 — Step negative three: just notice how you feel

18:00 — Interoception vs. judgment

19:00 — Exploring Christian possibilities (hello, Jinger Duggar)

20:00 — Interoception vs. introspection

21:00 — Digging yourself out vs. listening to your body

22:00 — Your body has a language

23:00 — The painful “playback” of manipulation

24:00 — Talking to yourself like a friend would

25:00 — Reclaiming the parts that helped you survive

26:00 — When submission theology hits marriage

27:00 — The hidden pressure on men to be “the voice of God”

28:00 — Boundaries, anxiety & interrupting the cycle

29:00 — When honesty strengthens (or exposes) a marriage

30:00 — Practical healing recap

31:00 — Resources for staying Christian — but freer

32:00 — Books that unlock self-trust

33:00 — Curiosity as a spiritual superpower

34:00 — The Order of St. Hildegard & anti-oppressive faith

35:00 — Finding community after deconstruction

36:00 — Where to connect with Catherine

Request to join my private Facebook Group, MFR Curious Insiders https://www.facebook.com/share/g/1BAt3bpwJC/

If you're not happy, it means something is wrong ... right?

Dr. Loretta Breuning is a PhD researcher & author. Since becoming unconvinced by prevailing theories on human behavior, she has researched everything from monkeys to the mafia. Now she’s not only helping people hack their brain, she’s shedding light on how the altruistic outlook may be popular, but ultimately damaging.

In this episode, she explains WHY we believe that if we are unhappy something is wrong, how simply “getting back to nature” can backfire, the problem with happiness studies & (this is important) how to start your own happiness plan.

This episode originally aired March 7, 2024.

If you like this episode, you’ll also like episode 275: IS AMBITION ANTI-HAPPINESS? REASONABLE HAPPINESS & FETISHIZING WEALTH

Guest:

https://innermammalinstitute.org/

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-happy-brain/id1377502232

https://www.instagram.com/inner.mammal.inst/

https://innermammalinstitute.org/course/

https://www.facebook.com/LorettaBreuningPhD

https://twitter.com/lbreuning

Host:

https://www.meredithforreal.com/

https://www.instagram.com/meredithforreal/

meredith@meredithforreal.com

https://www.youtube.com/meredithforreal

https://www.facebook.com/meredithforrealthecuriousintrovert

Sponsors:

https://www.jordanharbinger.com/starterpacks/

https://www.historicpensacola.org/about-us/

02:05 — Rousseau’s “nature is happy” legacy

02:48 — Why academia spreads the meme

03:36 — The medical model of unhappiness

04:18 — Blaming society vs building skills

07:24 — Hunter-gatherer reality check

09:58 — Culture shapes how we report happiness

10:32 — Why Americans hesitate to say “I’m happy”

11:32 — Cortisol: when expectations miss

13:42 — Childhood culture becomes adult politics

14:06 — Status envy in academia

15:10 — Moral superiority as serotonin

15:48 — The “I did it the right way” trap

16:38 — Everyone thinks they’re the overlooked underdog

18:06 — Popularity: the motivator no one admits

19:02 — How biology gets politicized

23:18 — Why therapy and religion sell unhappiness

24:08 — The media and your happy chemicals

25:02 — News as a brain-chemical cocktail

31:04 — How not to throw the baby out with the bathwater

34:08 — Reward yourself like animal training

34:42 — Train your inner mammal

Request to join my private Facebook Group, MFR Curious Insiders https://www.facebook.com/share/g/1BAt3bpwJC/