Letters to the Editor
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Just say "NO" to Alateen
Alateen is the worst possible idea in the entire world for this kid, or for any kid. Here's how Alateen works: Take a bunch of kids dealing with their parents alcoholism/addiction. They're already overwrought. Many of them have witnessed violence, were sexually abused, been through multiple divorces or break-ups, and have just had generally chaotic, shitty lives. Now put these messed up kids in a group with an untrained adult leader with no qualifications for group counseling. Many of these kids don't want to be there and are going because some adult, often the alcoholic parent, thinks it is now a good idea for the family to recover because it's "a family disease." Some of these kids are already using and well on their way to their own substance abuse problems.
Asking these kids to hang out together and "help" each other is like a perfect storm of fucked-upped teenage angst.
Alateen is a disaster. Don't do it.