Transportation with an unwilling adolescent

Some of you know what this is and some of you don’t. Involuntary rehabilitation, or “gooning” is when parents (normally) hire individuals (I call them bouncers) to take their child without the child’s consent to a rehab of one sort or another. This is a controversial debate since a minor is being removed from their home, involuntarily and subjected to some type of program without choice.

Of course, as parents we make many choices for our children, from the type of food they eat, the home they live in, schools, activities and much more, but when it comes to “gooning” it becomes tricky. Sending a child away from home can be scary not only for the parents/caregivers but also for the child. To remove them involuntarily, in the middle of the night, by strangers can only add to fear.

This is something we did as parents. We had our child removed from our home. It was about 3:45 a.m., he was sound asleep, high on some type of drug, and had no idea he would be taking a trip up the east coast to Adirondack, NY and spending the next 9 weeks in a wilderness therapy program. Our child was out of control, and it was a live or die situation. We knew he had to get help, he had to get it quick, and it needed to be a life-changing event.

This “gooning” may not be for everyone and may not fit your need, but it is available if it does. It is important to emphasize IF it fits your needs. Using this technique to move our child to the Wilderness program we had thoroughly researched and selected, was safe for him as well as safe for our family. The people bringing him to NY were certified and we researched what would happen. We spoke with them in advance and during the process. They texted us as they headed to our home, they texted us after our son was in the car (we were in our home in a different location to not interfere with their efforts to claim our son), they even updated us throughout the airport trip, landing and arriving at the Wilderness program.

It made an impact on our son. He knew that his behavior had to change. He wasn’t sure what that looked like, but he knew we had ways around him, his addiction could no longer run our home. When an intervention, offering options, setting and resetting boundaries doesn’t work, there are options. Keep putting one foot in front of the other, there are choices, help is only around the corner.

I want to reiterate, I did the research, I made the phone calls, I reached out to others with experience, and I prayed. I made an informed choice with all the information gathered and then took the steps to make it happen.