troubled teen

[bboppn]

I have a son who will be 17 this friday and for the past two years has definately been on a downward spiral.  He is smoking pot, he is skipping school, his grades have dropped dramatically and he doesn't care about anyone except himself.  He states that nobody can tell him what to do, he can do what he wants.  he doesn't care what anybody thinks of him or his actions.  He breaks all the household rules and has no regard for anyone else.  HELP me figure out what I should be doing.  We are on the verge of kicking him out.  We are currently going thru a drug and alchohol assesment program and have our final meeting next week.
I would appreciate any advice you may have to share.
Thank you

[Stepmom0418]

I dont have a whole lot of advise in this subject due to going through some of the same myself.

I have taken my teen and had a mental evaluation done on her. She is only 13 so that may make my situation a bit easier. I have found out that she is showing signs of bipolar and depression. The depression I was aware of but the bipolar I had no clue. Now that I know the signs of bipolar I would have to agree with the doctor.

This may or may not help in your situation given the fact that your child is 17.

Good Luck in your fight to save your child

[Kitty C.]

I don't know what kind of resources you have available, but something you might want to look into is a wilderness therapy program.  I sent my own son to one this past winter.  The basis of the program is the natural consequences that transpire from the decisions a teen makes.

If you do a search, you find a LOT of them and they certainly are not all alike.  What I would recommend is a program associated with the Aspen Education Group.  The program we picked was SageWalk, which was featured last year in ABC's 'Brat Camp'.  The reason I picked that one was because I was impressed with the high number of master's and Ph.D. level therapists they have.  We are currently associated with them thru their aftercare coaching program.

But you may have to hurry......many programs have an age cut-off of 18.  And it can be 'very' expensive (we paid $25,000 for 2 months, fairly cheap compared to other programs for what it offered), but education loans can be used for them.  

[bboppn]

thank you so much for your reply, I appreciate hearing from other people who have had similar situations to know that they have done something and hopefully there is a solution available.  We are sort of at a stand still right now, he has agreed to stop smoking until he moves out on his own, I guess that is a start and we will continue to take things one day at a time. Thanks again for your reply.