Help at Any Cost: How the Troubled-Teen Industry Cons Parents and Hurts Kids

Help at Any Cost was the first book to expose the roots of the troubled-teen industry and describe how it sells abuse as therapy. This original work was one of the inspirations for the hit Netflix documentary, The Program, and its author is the leading expert on the origins and harms of tough-love programs for teenagers. Despite the fact that these programs have no medical evidence to support them, the boot camps, rehabs, emotional growth boarding schools, religion-based centers and wilderness programs that make up this industry are even now finding new customers. Help at Any Cost is first in-depth investigation of these programs and their practices, starting with their roots in the cult sixties drug rehabilitation program, Synanon, which became the model for “therapeutic community” addiction treatment for both adults and teens in the U.S. It tracks the rise of Straight, Inc., which received Nancy Reagan’s seal of approval in the eighties and its spin-offs. It also explores the ensuing growth of boot camps and wilderness programs, and features an in-depth investigation of one of the dominant chains of the 90s and 00s, the World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools (WWASP), which is linked with sites still operating today. Szalavitz uncovers disturbing findings about these programs’ methods, including accounts of physical and verbal abuse, and presents moving, often horrifying, first-person testimony of kids who made it through-as well as stories of those who didn’t survive. The book also contains a thoughtfully compiled guide for parents, which details effective treatment alternatives. Weaving careful reporting with astute analysis, Maia Szalavitz has written an important and timely account that will change the way we look at rebellious teens-and the people to whom we entrust them. Help at Any Cost is a vital resource with an urgent message that will draw attention to a compelling issue long overlooked and a history that still shadows youth and adult addiction treatment in America.