I was in various troubled teen programs from the ages of 14-16. My last one was Newport Academy. I was there for 114 days until I acted out and got sent to the hospital. I had been told if I got sent to the hospital one more time I would be sent to a long term mental hospital. I was terrified. But then, a doctor came to speak to me in my hospital bed. I told him all these facilities were only making my mental health worse, something I had been telling everyone around me years. But unlike everyone else, he listened. He told me he didn’t think they were helping me either and that he wanted to see me walk free. Eventually, he convinced my parents to just put me in an outpatient program.

I don’t know the doctor’s name and I barely remember what he looks like, but I would give anything to see him again and thank him for saving my life. I owe everything to him. He was my savior, my guardian angel, the only person who took the time to listen to me and not treat me like a delusional nutcase.

I don’t think I’ll ever see him again, so I’m just writing this post to vent my gratitude towards him. Thank you doctor-whose-name-i-forgot

We’d like to share our experiences too. We went in January of 2025, for context.

I am issuing a strong trigger warning and sending my deepest sympathies to the survivors. It’s hard to know this level of abuse was (allegedly🙄) happening right down the road from my own program (“school”) while I was enrolled there in the late 90’s. I’m SOOOO proud of these survivors for seeking justice 💙⚖️

I posted about this new development the other day with the wrong link to the lawsuit - so…here is the correct link to the complaint: https://www.scribd.com/document/1040549410/DOE-1-et-al-v-MAINE-DEPARTMENT-OF-CORRECTIONS-et-al

“Lawmakers investigating recent abuse allegations at New Hampshire’s only state-run youth detention center are calling for the “immediate” replacement of its director, one in a list of sweeping recommendations released Tuesday.

The legislative committee began investigating operations inside the Sununu Youth Services Center in March, after the state Office of the Child Advocate reported the use of illegal restraints against children and a lockdown that spanned four to six weeks. The Disability Rights Center in New Hampshire has made similar allegations.”

I went to the Academy at Sisters in 2024, and it closed down the following year. Ever since, I've had PTSD related to being there. When I was there there was a massive focus on "doing good" and literally having to be perfect or else you'd be punished. If you were sick you only got your fifteen minutes in your room to rest and that was it. There was a lot of forced labor with really minimal pay. We would do intense physical labor for hours every day in the heat while the staff would just sit there and never help. If you missed even a bit of dust on the windowsill, you'd be punished. During chores you had to be completely silent and you couldn't talk to your peers at all. They wouldn't feed us as much as we needed, and if we wanted snacks before dinner we would be shamed. we had to hide snacks just so we'd have something to eat. what they did feed us was completely unpalatable, it was often mystery meat that made us all feel sick. And then we'd be shamed for not wanting to eat it and gaslight into thinking it was good. during eating your meal you had to put your hair up, no matter what. one student was really manipulative and had serious issues and for my birthday she gave me dirty, used scrunchies she probably found on the ground. she brought in a squirrel into the house and it died and rotted on the carpet and everyone was forced to just sleep there. she ate some of my food that I bought with my own money and gaslight me into thinking that I ate it in my sleep. the staff took her side too and gaslight me too. she would be awful and then cuddle up to me for some reason and beg me to protect her from scary things and it made me uncomfortable. we were on a camping trip and she made fun of me for having OCD. we went on a rafting trip for four days and had to sleep on the ground with flimsy mattresses, no tents or anything. and we weren't allowed to have seconds on the food the raft guides cooked for us. we got caught in a twenty to thirty miles per hour windstorm with no protection and dust and sand got everywhere. my blow up mattress blew away and I had to run down and retrieve it on my own, the staff wouldn't help me at all. if you wanted to advance to the next "level" in the program, you had to go in front of the whole staff (ten plus people) and your parents and get votes from all the students before you could level up and get more "privileges". you were isolated from your family for at least a month with no phone call and when you did get phone calls, they were fifteen minutes and the staff would cut you off the second it went over fifteen. for my seventeenth birthday I had to spend it there and I only got one fifteen minute phone call from my dad and that was it. I tried to talk to the staff about feeling scared and confused that I was there but they all didn't understand why I felt like that and were really harsh and dismissive. one staff member had a weird obsession with me and she wasn't in my "treatment team," but she claimed that she was and wouldn't let me do therapy work with the certain horse I wanted but forced a different one on me I had no connection with. when I expressed that I was excited that I was leaving that place, she asked if I was coming back, and I said no, and laughed cause I hated that place. and then she proceeded to literally follow me into the dining room and tell me everything she thought was wrong with me, that I was being manipulative, that I was supposed to come back, that everyone comes back and wants to visit, that I use the "silencing" manipulation tactic when I've always been insecure about how I'm quiet. She made me cry and still wouldn't stop talking really loudly and abrasively to me. I had to go outside and my best friend had to bring me food. the rest of the staff didn't take this emotional abuse seriously. a lot of people there ran away and the cops had to come to our house, or people would smash everything, breaking dishes and throwing food and ripping up papers and throwing furniture in anger and yelling at students and staff. one student assaulted another student and a staff and ran down the hallway saying we made him want to slit his wrists and he knocked over a big plant and rolled a chair really really fast down the hallway. some staff would just be rude to you. I would come back from home visits and one staff would completely ignore me, acting like I didn't exist. one staff told me to shave my legs and gave me my razor and wouldn't let me use the bathroom but forced me to stand outside on the deck and use the hose like a dog. The actual therapy sessions we had were extremely unhelpful and one of the therapists I think was high the whole time. when I would change in the shared bedroom we had, my peers would purposefully pull aside the curtain to look at me in my underwear. you weren't allowed certain pieces of clothing until you achieved a certain "level" in the program, so I got the majority of my clothes taken away and was only left with a few items. you had to wear shoes inside the house and you couldn't take them off no matter what. right when we got woken up at six forty five a.m., music would blare and they would make us clean, and everyone had to be fully done before everyone could eat breakfast, so we'd go a couple hours without it. they made us use bleach to clean three times a day, which gave me intense headaches. one of the staff dumped a bucket of cold water on a student when she wouldn't wake up in the morning. I experienced endless emotional abuse, physical neglect, coercion, and manipulation. I still have a lot of anxiety from it and I was wondering what has helped you guys in your healing?

TW: discussion of skin checks/strip searches/all that

in 2022 i was in the TTI for 3 months and was strip searched 6 times. i have an upcoming doctors appointment and i am so scared i will have to take off my clothes and the doctor will look at my naked body.

in the tti we were fully naked, no underwear or anything. once they gave me a tiny towel (i’m talking maybe a square foot) but the rest i was standing there moving all around in weird positions showing every inch

last year i had to get an MRI and even though needing to change into a gown just due to needing to avoid certain materials for safety in the machine and they gave me 2 gowns to cover front and back and i stayed fully covered the whole time i fucking lost it and cried and screamed. it’s a really important appointment and i really need to go but i feel like there’s no way i can do it, does anyone have advice or ways to cope or something

I went to various residential treatment facilities from ages 14-16, with the worst being Newport Academy. I’ve been out for years now, but I still feel so, so angry. Angry at the staff, angry at my parents, angry at myself for not escaping before I got hurt. I don’t want to feel this way. I just want to move on. But I can’t, because all those facilities are still running, all the people who hurt me are still walking. I can never get those years back and I will never be the same, and nothing was to come from all that suffering. I feel like until I get closure a part of me is still trapped in that god forsaken place. I got my life and my spark ripped away from me and I have yet to receive so much as an apology. How the hell do I move on?

I only just realized I’m still waiting for someone to save me back at TTI. To bring me into personhood from being an accessory.

It’s weird how I didn’t notice how much I feared my mother until she died, as I wasn’t afraid of her- just the potentially of truths… of our dynamics. Of who I am to me. Of who I am to society. That there was a hidden insight somehow she induced upon my existence. Like an observer collapsing the wave function of my destiny; limiting my possibilities in my eyes, in the eyes of others, in the fabric of reality.

I blithely pondered before if “I” really drowned there (Hyde), living in a futureless dream. I know that didn’t happen, if nothing else, it was the collapse of being prepared to never leave. Luckily I did, in theory.

I’m waiting for that redefinition, that second look, that savior, that permission to be which anyone could’ve offered to change my own view (which existed only in opposition to an indifferent them from which I lived apart).

I guess really the tragedy is knowing something so small as support could’ve so wildly changed life.

I wish someone gave me a hug as a teenager.
Told me I was good (or enough) instead of merely expected it.

Understood that we’re all fighting, and some of us just don’t know a better way.

Yes, life moves on, and it’s decades past.
But that unrealized hope weighs on me because it can never be fulfilled, and I’ll always know it.

What’s Next After TTI?

I think an important conversation we need to start having as survivors is not just exposing what’s wrong with the TTI, but talking about what would actually work better — both during treatment and after programs.

One thing I don’t think people fully understand is how hard it can be transitioning back into society after institutionalization. A lot of us left these programs emotionally shut down, hypervigilant, socially isolated, undereducated, and stuck in survival mode. Some of us aged out with no credits, no healthcare, no support systems, no job experience, and nowhere stable to go.

You spend years being controlled, monitored, punished, stripped of your identity, and told when to eat, sleep, shower, talk, and think — then suddenly you’re expected to function like a normal adult overnight.

A lot of us struggled with:

• Emotional regulation

• Trusting people and authority figures

• Feeling safe in normal social environments

• Anxiety, anger, grief, or emotional numbness

• Education gaps and lack of work experience

• Hyper-independence and survival behaviors

• Feeling disconnected from peers who had normal teenage experiences

• Shame and feeling “behind” everyone else

• Difficulty adjusting to freedom after years of control

Some people end up homeless, addicted, incarcerated, or back in programs because they never actually received the support they needed to heal and transition into adulthood safely.

I honestly believe outcomes would be very different if treatment focused less on punishment, humiliation, and control, and more on dignity, stability, individuality, and genuine support.

One thing I would personally love to see is transitional housing communities for teens and young adults leaving programs, foster care, or state custody. Not institutions — actual supportive communities where young people can safely transition into adulthood while still having guidance and support.

Imagine having:

• Your own room and personal space

• A community center where people cook meals together, socialize, and build healthy relationships

• Independent living classes teaching budgeting, cooking, hygiene, job skills, transportation, and emotional regulation

• Social workers and caseworkers who actively help with education, employment, healthcare, housing, and reconnecting with safe family members

• Access to therapy and long-term emotional support

• Mentorship, community activities, and real-world integration instead of isolation

I think many of us didn’t need to be “broken down.” We needed stability, belonging, emotional safety, guidance, and support learning how to function in the world after years of trauma and institutionalization.

The goal shouldn’t be creating compliant kids.

The goal should be helping young people become healthy, stable, supported adults.

I’d genuinely love to hear from other survivors:

What struggles did you face transitioning back into society, and what do you think would have actually helped?

Mine is meditation, breathing exercises, and body mindfulness — but I also really love poetry, and I’d love to share some of mine.

Push and pull, push and pull—

I know this rhythm, I know this role.

It lives in my chest,

in the back of my throat,

in the things I don’t say

but my body still knows.

You’re softer today.

You’re kinder today.

You reach for me in a gentle way.

And I want it—God, I want it—

not loud, not desperate,

just quiet enough

to feel like a need I don’t speak of.

To be wanted.

To be chosen.

To be held

without having to fold first.

So I match you.

I mirror.

I measure my tone to fit yours.

I soften my edges,

I slow down my pace,

I become the version

that’s easy to place—

inside your comfort,

inside your view,

just enough of me

to be shaped by you.

And it almost works.

It almost stays.

It almost feels

like safer days.

But my body—

my body don’t trust that calm.

It hums underneath

like a low alarm,

like “wait for the shift,”

like “watch the air,”

like something is coming—

just stand prepared.

And there it is.

Not loud.

Not clear.

Just a look

that lands a little too near.

A pause that stretches,

a silence that speaks,

and suddenly I’m back in between—

what I felt,

and what I should be,

what I said,

and what you saw in me.

So I edit.

I rewind.

I replay the moment

to get it right.

Because wanting to be wanted

starts to feel like getting it right—

like if I just hold the shape,

I can stay in the light.

But I’ve done that before.

God, I’ve done that well.

Turned myself into something

I could barely tell

was me.

And I was wanted there.

I was easy to keep.

I was soft in the places

that buried me deep.

And I won’t go back.

I won’t bend like that.

I won’t lose my voice

just to not react.

Because this push and pull,

this silent game,

this almost love

without a name—

it keeps me close

but not at peace,

keeps me seen

but not released.

And I feel it now—

clear, true, loud:

I don’t want to be wanted

if I have to break to fit.

I don’t want to be chosen

if I disappear in it.

Push and pull, push and pull—

I know this rhythm.

And I won’t play the role.

Things that happen ALL the time in the troubled teen industry!!!

I have always said, "I am a survivor of TTI" or "I hate TTI and the damage caused by it; my experiences with TTI are seriously fucked up." To me, dropping the redundant "the" just rolls off the tongue better.

In support groups I used to participate in pre-pandemic, that's how I seem to remember people referring to it. When I was interviewed by VICE about my experiences years ago, that's the phrasing I used, and I believe that's how they printed it in the article. But Ive also seen a ton of people using "the tti" as well. Including the major nonprofits that fight for legislation concerning TTI abuse

But lately, I’ve noticed more people putting a "the" before TTI. Sentences where I would normally just say TTI, people are now saying "the TTI."

I also noticed that AI seems to default to "the TTI" when I ask it to pull articles about facilities for my English essay, which probably means that its used with "the" preceding it more frequently.

Is it the Mandela effect that I feel like people used to use it more as "tti"? Are AI and increased media coverage shifting how we use the word when we talk about it? Or is my brain just fried from self-medicating too much and everyone has been calling it "the TTI" all along? /j

Just curious what way you guys find yourself preferring to use tti in sentences where it could be used either way.

In a sentence like this

"Its clear that TTI is profitable; though it is also clear that the industry relies on child abuse to generate returns."

VS

"Its clear that the TTI is profitable; though it is also clear that the industry relies on child abuse to generate returns.

Which version would you personally use, and why?

EDIT:

I'm not asking what the "correct" way is, and I'm not looking to argue about grammar. My linguistics professor already confirmed that both ways are entirely grammatically correct.

There are a ton of examples of it being used both ways. I'm not here to debate which way is the right way to use it bc BOTH WAYS ARE CORRECT 🙄

Here are a few examples for both usages

Unsilenced uses "the TTI" in most of their publications and on their website. Like in this quote

>This resource exists because families, survivors, researchers, and advocates deserve something different — plain information about what the TTI actually is, how these programs operate, who profits from them, and what the research really says about their outcomes.

Breaking code silence also tends to use "the tti" when either way would work. Like in this example

>It seems clear that the punitive tactics and abuses perpetrated by the TTI are out of step with contemporary sensibilities and practices in adolescent mental health

BUT many also use it in the way I tend to use it instinctively, and how I have been using it so far in my essay. i.e without "the" as an indefinite article preceding it TTI. Examples include:

academic journals including one from Uppsala University titled "They Told Me The Pills Were Safe" - Understanding the Experience of Iatrogenic Injury from Psychiatric Treatment, use it without "the" preceding it

>"Crystal expresses that both her time in TTI *and subsequent psychiatric treatments have resulted in a lack of trust in herself."*Example: In a 2023 academic thesis from Uppsala University titled "They Told Me The Pills Were Safe" - Understanding the Experience of Iatrogenic Injury from Psychiatric Treatment, the researchers note a subject's background by writing:"Crystal expresses that both her time in TTI and subsequent psychiatric treatments have resulted in a lack of trust in herself."

In Dr. Jessica Hoffman's 2022 dissertation, Survivors Speak: Social Media’s Influence on the Troubled Teen Industry, she analyzes thousands of interactions from survivors online.

• The Quote: "The tweets meeting TTI survivor criteria were analyzed using the computational research methods..."

In Dr. Olivia Stull’s 2020 doctoral dissertation, An Exploratory Study on Adult Survivors of the Troubled Teen Industry’s Therapeutic Boarding Schools and Wilderness Programs, an important quantitative study on the subject. Throughout the text, the article is dropped when treating the industry as a status or conceptual noun.

In a 2025 research publication analyzing the demographics of institutionalized youth, the researchers drop the definite article when discussing facility placements.

• The Quote: "...there is an overrepresentation of adoptees in TTI programs*..."*

Laura Soloman, ACSW (Trauma Specialist): In her clinical biography outlining specialities in complex trauma, the text reads:

>"Survivors of TTI and high control groups face distinct emotional and psychological challenges... Having worked extensively with individuals from high control groups and TTI survivors..."

English rules allow acronyms and initialisms to be used either way, but suggest that people usually default to whatever is already considered the standard. Because TTI isn't a universally discussed topic, there just isn't an undisputed "standard" yet.

If you're interested in the linguistics behind why either way works, here is some background info:

When the Article is Dropped

When an abbreviation acts as a proper noun or already contains the word "The," we naturally drop the preceding article.

• CPS (Child Protective Services): "They called CPS." (Not the CPS).
• TPB (The Pirate Bay): "I downloaded it from TPB." (Not the TPB).
• They are researching treatments for HIV. (Not generally used as the Hiv)

There are differences even within the same field.

• CRT (Critical Race Theory): "There is a national debate regarding CRT." (Not the CRT), though we would say "Some say the theory of gravity is as close to scientific fact as theories can be"

Initialisms & Acronyms: We say, "I saw it on CNN," or "NASA launched a rocket." We don't put "the" in front of them the way we do for "Im being investigated by the FBI and the CIA"

It's evident that English allows for using acronyms and initialisms both ways when you look at a sentence like:

>"I committed fraud while working for NASA, so now I'm being investigated by the CIA"

>vs

>"I committed fraud while working at the CIA, but luckily I managed to get a job at NASA instead"

RAS Syndrome is an example of this variance in how things are used (Tolerated Redundancy)

Ras syndrome is when sometimes we redundantly reuse words that are already inside the abbreviation (Redundant Acronym Syndrome). People do this all the time, which is why "the TTI" (the The Troubled Teen Industry) is still accepted in everyday speech.

• PIN number: Personal Identification Number number
• VIN number: Vehicle Identification Number number
• ATM machine: Automated Teller Machine machine
• Or something like TLC (The Learning Channel): "I watched a documentary on TLC." (Rather than the TLC).

Used Interchangeably

Many initialisms are fluid and change based on context, and just like TTI they can come down to personal preference or how the abbreviated form is used most frequently.

• CEO: "Jane Doe is the CEO" vs. "How did Jane Doe become CEO?"
• DRM: "I removed the DRM software from the game" vs. "I removed DRM software from the game."
• GDP: "The policy will harm the GDP" vs. "I dont like policy that harms GDP."
• ROI: "Do you know what the ROI is?" vs. "Have you calculated ROI?"
• DOJ: Lawyers will say, "DOJ is reviewing the case," while news anchors will say, "The DOJ is reviewing the case."

Let me know which version you prefer to use and if you've noticed a shift in how people use the term as well