There are benefits and challenges to sending a teenager to rehab, both for the parents and the teen. Being away from home and friends, disgruntled peers, feeling alienated and misunderstood by therapists and treatment center staff and a bevy of new rules can all create upheaval. For adolescents, whose emotions are already more volatile and unpredictable, it can be difficult to find the willingness to do the frequently taxing psychological work that’s part of treatment.
However, it can be a profound source of healing as well. A good treatment center gives teens a chance to reflect without the same old pressures of everyday life. Parents are able to work through issues in family therapy. Overall, there can be a reprieve from the conflict often inherent in struggling parent-teen relationships. Such a break can create a space for solace and healing. Sometimes, for the young person, simply being removed from the environment where the dysfunction is occurring for a short while helps more than anything else.
[For more on this story by Matianna Baldassari, go to https://www.thefix.com/what-expect-teen-rehab]
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